


A Thousand Years

by OfEndlessWonder



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-23 02:13:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 37,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6101386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfEndlessWonder/pseuds/OfEndlessWonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carter Grant knows his Mom has a crush on her assistant. Carter's also pretty sure that said assistant has a crush on his Mom. But they're both too stubborn to admit it, so he's taken it upon on himself to try and get them together, no matter how much they might try to fight against it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know I've said this on my last two longer fics, but this one really, really got away from me. Like nearly 40k worth of got away from me. I've managed to split into four roughly equal parts, and I'll be updating every three days :)
> 
> Bit of background for this fic: I started writing it a while ago, so you can disregard pretty much anything from 1x10 and beyond that happened in canon (basically Kara/Adam never happened, Maxwell Lord never found out Supergirl's identity, and Cat isn't interested in keeping her relationship with Kara 'strictly professional'). It takes place a couple of months into the future, and Lucy Lane knows that Kara is Supergirl in this universe. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy!

“Kara!” She glances up at the sound of her name, not immediately recognising the voice, and when she turns her head to the side to see Carter Grant beaming at her she feels an answering smile tug at her lips. She hasn’t seen him since her disastrous weekend babysitting attempt, but she would’ve been willing to watch him for another night, had Cat asked, because once the whole train crisis had been averted she’d had fun.

She’s so surprised to see him at CatCo that it takes her a moment to notice that something’s off, but she frowns when she notices the split lip and the faint flush of red across one of Carter’s cheeks, the hint of the beginning of a bruise starting to show beneath.

“Hey, buddy.” Her eyes scan across the rest of his face, searching for any other signs of damage. “What are you doing here?”

“I got sent home from school.” He glances down at the floor and scuffs at it with his shoe – Kara glances over his head and sees that Cat is on the phone in her office, jaw set in annoyance and her eyes tightly closed, fingers pressing into her temple and Kara doesn’t need superhearing to know that whoever is on the other end of the line is getting an earful.

She’d only just slipped back to her desk when Carter had surprised her, an emergency alien situation requiring her assistance and she hopes that Cat hadn’t had too many questions about her absence, because otherwise _she’s_ going to be next on Cat’s hit list and with how furious she looks right now Kara knows that that won’t be a fun way to spend her afternoon.

“Why?”

“I got into a fight.” Carter’s bottom lip juts out, still refusing to look Kara in the eye and her frown deepens, because that doesn’t sound like him at all.

“What happened?” She asks gently, wanting to reach out and tilt his head up to meet her gaze but unsure how he’ll react. “You know you can tell me, right? I won’t tell your Mom.”

“But she’s your boss.” He glances up, briefly, darting his eyes from Kara to Cat’s office.

“I can keep a secret,” Kara whispers conspiratorially, and Carter bites at his bottom lip for a long moment, looking deep in thought before he takes a step closer to Kara’s desk.

“There are some kids at school,” he starts, eyes darting away one again as he fidgets with his hands. “They’re not… very nice to me.” Kara feels anger flood through her at that, because she knows from experience how cruel children can be, and she loathes the thought of Carter being bullied. “But today I thought… I wondered what Supergirl would do if she was there and I… I stood up for myself.” He finally meets Kara’s eyes then, and smiles a sad little smile. “They didn’t like that very much.”

“Oh, Carter.” Her heart aches with sympathy for him, because he’s such a good, sweet kid and he doesn’t _deserve_ this. “Have you told anyone about this? Is there anyone you can talk to at school?”

“No-one that listens.” He sighs and glances towards Cat. “My Mom kept ringing up the school but they never _did_ anything about it and it just made it worse so I told her that it stopped and I think she believed me until today.”

“You shouldn’t have to put up with this, there must be something - ”

“Please don’t,” he cuts her off, voice pleading. “You sound like my Mom. I just… I just want to forget about it. Please?” Kara’s never been good at letting things go, but he’s staring up at her with wide, earnest eyes.

“Okay,” she agrees, a little reluctantly. “But first,” she continues, watching his face fall a little. “I want to teach you something. C’mere.” She takes his hand and leads him down the hall – she glances up to see Cat watching them go with narrowed eyes and swallows hard because she’s pretty sure if Cat finds out what she’s about to do she’ll be murdered but… Carter should at the very least know how to defend himself, just in-case anything like this ever happens again. She finds an empty office (one of the many victims of one of Cat’s firing rampages that she was prone to go on at least once a month) and ushers Carter inside. 

“What are you doing?” He asks, blinking up at her curiously.

“I’m going to show you how to dodge a punch,” she replies as she shuts the door behind them, watching his eyes widen with excitement. “Just in-case you ever need to.”

“Can you show me how to throw one, too?” She fiddles with her glasses as she debates that, because she’s pretty sure Cat might actually kill her but then she thinks of the snotty faces of the kids that had tries to pick on her in high school and remembers how satisfying it had been when Alex had punched them all in the face for messing with her sister.

“Okay, but you can’t tell your Mom, you hear me? She’ll fire me.”

“I won’t, I promise!” Kara’s not entirely sure it’s one he’s going to keep but she resigns herself to it anyway, telling herself it’ll be worth it if Carter can hold his own next time. She shows him how to dodge, first, telling him over and over again how important it is to always run if he can and only fight back if it’s his only alternative before she shows him how to throw a decent punch.

“Make sure your thumb’s on the outside,” she cautions as he makes a fist. “Stand with your feet a little bit apart, that’s right, and then you just wanna put as much weight behind it as you can.” She steers well clear of his reach on the off-chance that he might collide with her and break something (she’ll _definitely_ be worse than dead if she returns Cat’s son to her injured). He’s a quick study, and after only a few minutes Kara is confident that his bullies will be getting a surprise they next time they try to pick on Carter Grant.

Of course, it’s as he’s dancing around the room pretending to box an invisible opponent for Kara’s enjoyment that the door clicks open behind them, and Kara curses herself because she should have been keeping an ear out but she’d been _distracted_ and now Cat Grant is standing in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest and an immaculate eyebrow raised questioningly.

“Tell me, Kiera,” she begins, voice still tight with the rage she’d been directing towards the school board just a few moments ago, “am I paying you to be my assistant, or am I paying you to teach my son how to perpetuate violence?”

“I… um, I’m s-sorry, Miss Grant, I just - ”

“Just what?” Cat snaps, rolling her eyes at Kara’s stammering. “Just thought you’d fancy yourself a parent for the afternoon?”

“N-no, I - ”

“I asked her to, Mom.” Carter comes to her rescue, appearing at Kara’s side and looking up at his Mom with wide eyes. “It’s not her fault.”

“Kiera is perfectly capable of refusing to give in to the whims of a thirteen year old,” Cat huffs, eyes still on Kara’s face and Kara feels trapped beneath the weight of them, heavy and furious.

“I can be very persuasive.” Cat’s eyes soften, just the tiniest bit, as they flicker down to her son’s. “Don’t be mad at her, Mom. She was just trying to help, and she only told me to use it as a last resort.”

“I just thought that he should be able to defend himself,” Kara adds quietly, glancing down at the now-purpling skin of his cheek.

“Yes, well, hopefully that won’t be necessary.” Cat’s mouth downturns at the corners as her eyes linger on Carter’s cheek before she blinks and her mask of indifference is back in place. “Kiera, you have layouts to do – don’t think I didn’t notice your little disappearing act - ” Kara flushes a little, knowing that Cat’s suspicions about her identity are yet to be completely alleviated. “I still expect them on my desk tonight before you leave.”

“Yes, Miss Grant.”

“Mom, can Kara come over for dinner?” Kara had been about to slip past Cat and out of the room to return to her desk, but at his words she falters, hands immediately raising to fiddle with her glasses as she watches Cat’s reaction carefully.

“I’m sure Kiera has better things to do this evening, Carter. Like get my layouts done.”

“Please?” Carter pleads, the hint of a whine in his voice. “I’ve missed her, and she was really good at Settlers of Catan and - ”

“Fine,” Cat huffs out, and Kara doesn’t know who’s more surprised – Cat, who looks like she can barely believe the word has escaped her mouth, or Kara, who can only stare at Cat, taken aback. “ _If_ she finishes the layouts and _if_ she’d like to come… I suppose I’ll allow it.” Cat’s eyes find Kara’s and she wishes more than anything that could read the emotion swirling in their dark depths – she can’t for the life of her tell if Cat wants her to lie and say she already has plans.

“I…” She starts, a refusal ready on her lips – but then she sees Carter, looking up at her with hopeful eyes and she breathes out a sigh, too quiet for the others to hear. “I’d love to.”

x-x-x

Kara hovers awkwardly outside the front door of Cat’s apartment later that night, a bottle of wine clutched in her hands as she waits anxiously for it to open. It was probably a bad idea for her to come here tonight – she should have just called to say she couldn’t make it, because then she wouldn’t have to face Carter’s crestfallen face _and_ she would’ve survived the night intact.

Because Kara’s not entirely sure she _can_ survive dinner with Cat. Because she may or may not think that her boss is _really_ freaking hot and it’s a lot easier to forget about that when she’s being ordered around the office or fetching coffee and lunches or being yelled at for not doing her job well enough than it is when she’s alone with the woman and her son in their huge apartment.

So she really should have said no, and maybe there’s still time for her to get the hell out of there – but then the door is being pulled open and Kara’s breath catches when she sees Cat standing on the other side.

She’s still wearing the same skirt as she had at work (it rides up her thighs when she crosses her legs in the most distracting of ways), but she’s changed into a different blouse, a dangerous extra button undone that gives Kara a tempting view of the cleavage beneath (cleavage that she realises she’s staring at when she hears Cat clear her throat, and she flushes, fumbling with the wine and nearly dropping it to the floor as she turns her gaze away and sheepishly meets Cat’s eye).

“I didn’t realise you owned clothing that wasn’t hideous,” is how Cat greets her, and Kara’s pretty sure that’s the closest thing to a compliment that Cat has ever given her. She’d chosen the dress on a whim, a deep purple that hugs her in all the right places, and Cat’s gaze is appreciative as it flickers across her body, making Kara’s flush deepen. “Come in.”

“Hi, Kara!” Carter greets, bouncing over to her as Cat takes the bottle of wine from Kara’s hand and stalks towards the kitchen. His cheek has already bruised, nearly matching the shade of her dress, but he shows no sign of discomfort as he reaches for her hand and pulls her over to the couch, Settlers of Catan already set out on the coffee table.

“Give the girl a chance to get settled, Carter,” Cat chastises from behind them, appearing around the side of the couch a moment later, wordlessly offering Kara a glass of the wine she’d brought with her.

“Sorry,” Carter says with a sheepish grin, shaking his head in an attempt to stop his hair falling into his eyes.

“It’s okay,” Kara replies with a reassuring smile as she reaches for the wine and takes a sip. “Unless you need any help with dinner, Miss Grant?”

“You’re in my home, Kara,” Cat murmurs, hands on her hips, and Kara tries to ignore the thrill that goes through her at the sound of Cat saying her name. “I’m just Cat to you here. And no, I’ll be fine – you two go ahead.”

Carter dives straight into the game as Cat returns to the kitchen, the clinking of pans and plates filtering through to Kara’s ears along with the sound of Cat humming quietly along to the radio, making her smile.

She’s always loved board games, and this one is no exception, though she has to bite down her competitive streak for Carter’s sake (she can get a little carried away – once she’d nearly destroyed a monopoly board with her heat vision, and she hasn’t been allowed to play it since).

She’s losing a little miserably by the time Cat calls out that the food’s ready (‘maybe you just had beginner’s luck, last time,’ Carter tells her with a cheeky grin, and Kara lets out an outraged gasp and vows to kick his ass, gently).

“What are we having?” Kara asks as she follows Carter into the dining room, and sliding into the seat opposite him, with Cat at the head of the table.

“Chicken parmesan,” Carter chirps happily as Cat sets a plate down in-front of the both of them before taking her seat and raising her glass to her lips. “Mom said it was your favourite.” Cat chokes a little on her wine and Kara eyes her curiously because it _is_ one of her favourites but she has no idea how Cat would know that.

Cat refuses to look her in the eye, and Kara doesn’t miss the smug little smirk that Carter’s trying to hide, and wonders if she’s missing something.

“Well, it looks amazing.”

“Of course it does, I made it,” Cat says dryly, and Kara grins as she digs in. It tastes as good as it looks, and Kara wonders if she can get Carter to invite her around more often because as much as she loves food she’s never been an amazing cook, and she’s glad she has super metabolism because she’s pretty sure that without it, with the amount of take-out she eats, that she’d be about a hundred pounds heavier than she is now.

“That was incredible, Miss Grant,” Kara murmurs when she’s finished, leaning back in her chair. “Cat,” she corrects when Cat throws her a pointed glare. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Kara.” Cat’s on her second glass of wine and looks a little more relaxed – Kara knows she’s a lightweight and wonders if she should subtly tell her to slow down. “You’re actually not bad company.”

“Thanks?”

“That _was_ meant as a compliment,” Carter translates, cheerfully. “Sometimes she’s bad at expressing herself,” he whispers that part to Kara even though Cat is still very much in earshot, and Kara shoots her boss a nervous glance but Cat’s just narrowing her eyes at the side of her son’s head.

“What have I told you,” Cat cautions, though there’s very little malice in her tone, “about - ”

“Being cheeky?” He finishes with a grin. “To watch it.”

“Mm, and what do you think you’re doing right now?” Kara watches them with interest, as Cat rests her elbow on the table and settles her chin in the palm of her hand – she’s never really seen them interact before, and it’s really kind of fascinating to see her boss in such a new light.

“Just trying to help you out, Mom.” Cat’s eyes narrow until they’re barely slits, and Carter grins at the slightly murderous look on his mother’s face.

“Go,” is all Cat says though, waving a hand at him to shoo him away. “Before you make me regret keeping you.” Carter just snickers before climbing to his feet and practically skipping out of the room, and Kara watches him go with a smile playing at the edges of her lips.

“He seems… different.”

“He’s always been more at ease when he’s around me,” Cat replies softly, eyes still on the doorway her son had just disappeared through.

“He’s a good kid.”

“Yes, he is.” Cat rises to her feet, gathering up the dishes and Kara grabs whatever she can’t, following her into the kitchen. “You don’t have to do that, Kara,” Cat chastises, batting Kara’s hands away as she sets the dishes down. “You’re not my assistant here.”

“I know, but I’d like to help.”

“It’s fine, go and carry on your game.”

“To be honest with you, there _isn’t_ much of a game. I’m losing. Miserably.”

“I thought you were supposed to be good at it?” Cat asks, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “Have we finally found your weakness?”

“W-weakness? What do you mean? I have… I have _tons_ of weaknesses.” She doesn’t – there’s only two that she can think of. One of them is standing before her with twinkling eyes and a smiling mouth, and the other is Kryptonite.

“No, you don’t.” Kara hands Cat dishes as she begins to load the dishwasher. “I don’t think there’s a single task I’ve given you as my assistant that you haven’t managed to do. Some jobs, admittedly, are done better than others, but still.”

“I’m just… good at my job, I guess.”

“Mm.” Cat straightens up as she closes the dishwasher, hands on her hips as her eyes meet Kara’s, more serious, now. “Because there’s nothing… _super_ about you, is there?” Kara’s jaw clenches as she swallows, hard, aware of Cat’s unwavering gaze.

“Nope. Nothing at all.” Cat just hums to herself before she turns and makes her way over to where Carter’s curled up on the couch, snatching up her glass as she goes, Kara trailing along in her wake. She tuts as she stands over the board.

“Oh, dear, there really is no salvaging this, is there?”

“I told you.”

“You should help her, Mom,” Carter urges, and Kara sees the way Cat deliberately catches his eye, knows that she’s saying something to him without a word and wishes she had J’onn’s ability to read minds. “She needs it.”

“I really do,” Kara adds, because otherwise there’s very little point in them carrying on, and Cat finally agrees with a long-suffering sigh, sitting delicately down on the couch and leaving enough space for Kara to perch beside her.

Not even Cat can help her win, though she certainly enjoys trying, and Kara thinks that Cat may be even more competitive than she is.

“We should play something else,” Carter says when he eventually, inevitably wins. “You can pick, Kara.”

“Well, what do you guys have?” Carter opens a cabinet in the corner of the room to reveal a rather impressive array of board games (even more than Kara herself has, and that’s saying something), and she whistles quietly as she scans the titles. “Ooh, Scrabble?”

“Ugh, no,” Carter vetoes, scrunching his nose up in distaste. “It’s my Mom’s favourite, and she wins every time. Every. Time.”

“I bet I could give her a run for her money.” It escapes her without her giving it much thought, because she’s the Scrabble champ of games night, and she realises too late who she’s said it to, watches Cat raise a brow and wonders if she’s about to get yelled at.

“Is that a challenge?” She asks, and Kara swears that there’s a suggestive undertone to Cat’s voice, then promptly tells herself that she’s imaging it.

“Um, maybe?” There’s a dangerous glint in Cat’s eyes that makes her phrase it as a question.

“Oh, you are on.” Cat sets her wine glass down delicately, like she’s worried it’s going to interfere with her chances of winning. “Later, Danvers, you are going down.” Kara’s eyes widen a little and she hopes that Cat doesn’t notice.

“O-okay.” Cat holds her gaze for another long moment before she blinks and looks away, and Kara feels a little shaky, turns back to Carter who’s watching them and shaking his head disbelievingly.

She eventually settles on Clue (which Cat wins, much to both Carter’s and Kara’s dismay), before they have dessert (probably the best chocolate cake she has ever eaten – and she has eaten a _lot_ in her lifetime – another one of her favourites that she’s never once told Cat about).

After that they play a final game of Settlers of Catan (which Carter wins, and Kara just becomes more determined to win at Scrabble so that the whole night hasn’t been a _complete_ failure), before Cat shoos a protesting Carter off to bed, telling him he’s already stayed up well past his bedtime.

Kara watches the two of them disappear down the hall and runs a fingertip around the rim of her wine glass as she waits for Cat to return – when she does she heads straight for the cabinet and tugs out the Scrabble box from halfway down the pile.

Kara _really_ tries not to admire the way her skirt stretches tight over her ass as she bends down, revealing that she’s wearing a thong beneath it that Kara’s pretty sure she’s going to be dreaming about later that night.

She’s also pretty sure, judging from the smirk that graces Cat’s lips when she turns around, that she’s noticed her staring, but Kara can’t even have the grace to look embarrassed because Cat is _hot_ and she knows it.

“Sure you’re up for this?” Cat asks as she folds herself back against the arm of the couch that Carter had claimed earlier, popping the lid of the box and handing Kara one of the racks within, which she angles carefully so that it’s out of Cat’s line of sight.

“Yep.” She’s pretty sure she’s not, because she’s acutely aware of the fact that she’s alone with her boss in her apartment and there are actually much more… interesting things that she might want to be doing on this couch but Kara isn’t going to voice a single one of those things aloud.

Of all the ways she imaged her day ending when she’d stepped off the CatCo elevator that morning, playing board games on Cat Grant’s couch hadn’t even been within the realm of possibility.

Cat shakes the bag, letters safely inside, before offering it to Kara. She fills up her glass once they’d both got a full set of seven, Cat having brought the bottle over earlier.

“Aren’t you afraid that that’s going to affect your chances of winning?” Cat asks, an almost playful lilt to her voice – Kara thinks that this may be the most relaxed she’s ever seen her.

“I can handle my alcohol,” she murmurs around the rim as she lifts it to her lips, and Cat tuts as she leans back in her chair, arms folding across her chest.

“And we both know that I cannot so you can finish that bottle on your own. Oh, what I’d give to be twenty four again,” she says, a little wistfully, and Kara tries to image what a twenty four year old Cat Grant would have looked like.

She probably shouldn’t have imaged that.

Actually, no, scratch that – she _definitely_ shouldn’t have imaged that.

“You don’t,” Kara replies once she’s managed to get her mind out of the gutter. “It sucks.”

“How on earth does it, as you so eloquently put, ‘suck’? You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t exactly have my life _together_ , either. Not like you do. You’ve got an amazing job, an amazing _company_ , and a great son, too. You have it all.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she murmurs quietly, running her thumb absently over the back of her ring finger, where Kara knew a ridiculously expensive wedding and engagement ring had once sat. “And I didn’t have any of those things when I was your age, Kara. I had a baby that I didn’t know what to do with and an internship that I hated.”

“I know,” she shrugs, because she can scarcely image all the crap Cat has had to go through to get to where she is today. “But that’s what I mean – don’t be so eager to trade places.”

“And get a body back like that one?” Her eyes scan Kara’s figure appreciatively, and she flushes furiously under the scrutiny. “I’d take that chance in a heartbeat.”

“What? But you’re so… so p-retty.” It’s not the adjective that had immediately sprung to mind (that had been ‘freaking gorgeous’, but somehow she doesn’t think that will be as appreciated).

“Well, that’s very sweet of you to say, Kara, but - ”

“I’m not just saying it,” she interrupts, feeling suddenly emboldened and desperate to wipe away the faint hint of insecurity she can see in Cat’s eyes. “I-I think you’re beautiful.” Cat holds her gaze for a long, tense moment whilst Kara worries if she’s said too much, before she smiles a rare genuine smile.

“Thank you,” she says quietly, before clearing her throat and leaning forward. “Now, shall we?”

Carter was right – Cat _is_ good at this. But so is she, and she can tell Cat’s surprised as Kara keeps giving as good as she gets. It’s a close-fought game, but then a grinning Kara gets the opportunity to play the word ‘quartz’ on a triple word square and it sends her spinning into the lead, much to Cat’s dismay.

“Best two out of three?” Cat asks, reluctantly, once they’ve played as many letters as they can, and Kara’s tempted to refuse just to see the look on Cat’s face, but she’s actually having _fun_ , so she agrees with a smug smile.

“Only if you’re prepared to lose again.”

“Watch it,” Cat mutters in reply, but her voice lacks its usual bite.

Cat manages to scrape a win in the second game, and it’s her turn to be smug as they tip the letters back into the bag and begin the third.

Kara gets the opportunity to play the word ‘horny’ early on and bites her lip for a long moment, debating whether to play it before shrugging and setting the letters down on the board. Cat blinks and then smirks.

“Trying to tell me something, Kara?” Kara’s pretty sure she turns crimson, and she wonders if Cat’s playing a game, seeing how many times she can make her blush.

“N-no!”

“Shame.” Cat mutters it, so quietly that if not for her superhearing Kara would never have head it, but she _does_ and she stares at the side of Cat’s head for several long seconds whilst the other woman debates her next word, because what the hell does _that_ mean?

Does it mean what she thinks it means?

Does Cat… _think_ about her, want her, in the same way that she wants Cat?

Or is she just completely reading into things?

“It’s your go, Kara,” Cat murmurs a few moments later, and Kara’s still a little dazed, hadn’t even realised that Cat had put any letters down.

 _Pull it together, Danvers_ , she tells herself, trying to concentrate on the game but thoughts of Cat are still swimming around distractingly in her head. She still manages to make the word bondage, though, and she watches Cat’s lips press together in a thin line and, for the second time that night, wishes that she could read her mind.

After that, as well as intense game of Scrabble, it also seems to become a game of who could get the most innuendo-laden words on the board. Kara nearly swallows her tongue when Cat manages to get ‘choke’ and ‘handcuff’ on there (Kara daringly asks if _Cat_ is trying to tell her something, and Cat just smirks and murmurs ‘wouldn’t _you_ like to know’ and yes, yes, she very much _would_ ), but she’s pretty impressed with her ‘whips’ and ‘sexy’ (on a triple word space, for an added bonus), too.

In the end, it’s Kara who wins, and she swears that there’s a tiny pout on Cat’s mouth as she throws her hands above her head in a silent celebration as she makes a reluctant Cat read out the final scores.

“Unbelievable,” Cat says, almost to herself. “I haven’t been beaten at this game in years.” She peers at Kara suspiciously, like she must have been cheating.

“You obviously just hadn’t met your match,” Kara replies smugly, draining the very last of the bottle of wine.

“This isn’t over,” Cat warns. “I want a replay.”

“It’s a date,” she says lightly, watching the way Cat’s eyes widen just a little at the word ‘date’. “But right now I should probably get going. I didn’t realise how late it was.” Cat glances at the clock and lets out a little gasp when she sees the time – it’s nearing one a.m., and they’ve been playing for nearly two and a half hours.

“Did you walk here?” Cat asks as Kara rises to her feet, raising both her arms over her head to stretch her muscles.

“Yeah, why?”

“I’m not letting you walk back to your apartment at this time of night alone,” Cat says in her no-room-for-arguments voice. “You can stay here, we have a guest room.”

“Oh, no, Miss Grant, I couldn’t possibly - ”

“Nonsense.”

“I’ll be fine, honestly - ”

“I haven’t seen the neighbourhood you live in, Kara – and frankly I never want to – but I’m positive that it’s probably not the safest place for a young woman such as yourself to be out and about at night. Plus, you’ve had at least three glasses of wine and regardless of how well you say you can handle it, I don’t feel comfortable letting you walk back alone, so please, stay. It’s no trouble, and I won’t take no for an answer. Unless,” she says then, looking like she’s just had a brilliant idea. “You’re not afraid of being out alone because you know you can take care of yourself. Say, because you have superpowers…?”

“You’re probably right,” Kara begins reluctantly. “It is safer to stay here.” Cat looks a little disappointed, but doesn’t press.

“Very well, this way.” She leads Kara down the hall, to the door before the one she knows from her previous visits here leads to Cat’s bedroom. “I’ll go and get you something to wear.” Kara nods and lets herself into the room, whistling quietly because it’s about three times of the size of her bedroom at home. “I think these are the only things that will fit,” Cat says as she returns with a thin shirt and shorts that look barely worn.

They smell like Cat’s laundry detergent, Kara thinks she as she takes them from the other woman, and she wonders if the scent will linger on her skin come morning. 

“You can use my bathroom,” Cat continues as she nods towards the adjourning door. “If you need the shower, do _not_ adjust any of the settings,” she warns, and Kara doesn’t think she’d trust herself in there anyway. “There’s a spare toothbrush under the sink.”

“T-thank you.”

“I trust you can wake yourself up in the morning.” Cat wanders over to the bathroom, hand closing around the door handle as she presses it open. “I’ll have my driver stop by your apartment on the way to work.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do - ”

“I will not have my assistant wearing yesterday’s clothes,” Cat sneers, looking like she wishes she could burn them – Kara wonders if she should be worried that they might disappear during the night, never to be seen again. “People will talk.”

“I just meant that I can make my own way there in the morning.”

“And be late?” Cat sounds aghast. “Absolutely not.”

“B-but won’t people still talk if they see us come in together?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Cat says then, a smirk playing around the edges of her lips. “ _You’re_ getting dropped off at the coffee shop down the street. I’ll still need my latte. Goodnight, Kara.”

“Night, Cat,” she murmurs but the door has already closed, Cat already gone, Kara left alone, and she glances at the bed ( _Cat’s_ bed), and thinks that it’s going to be a really, really long night.

She changes into the clothes and climbs into the bed, letting out a soft sigh as she sinks into the soft mattress, the sheets feeling amazing against the bare skin of her legs and okay, maybe this night won’t be so awful after all.

She’s pretty sure it’s the most comfortable bed she’s ever lay on.

She still stares up at the ceiling for a while, though, using her x-ray vision on a whim and smiling when it reveals the stars twinkling above her. She’s so high that they almost seem close enough to touch, and she reminds herself of the constellations that Alex had taught her during those first few hard months on earth – she always does this whenever she struggles to fall asleep, always finds it instantly relaxing (more so than counting sheep, anyway – she’d always thought that that idea was a ridiculous one).

Her concentration wavers when she hears the sound of a soft gasp coming from the room two doors down, and Kara blinks, the sparkling night sky replaced with Cat’s white ceiling, and turns her head towards the source of the noise, frowning and wondering if Cat is having some sort of bad dream.

But then she hears it again, followed by something that sounds suspiciously like the sound of rough lace scratching against bare skin, and then there’s a hitch in Cat’s breathing and the subtle creak of bed springs and then a wet sound and –

Oh, god.

Oh.

God.

Cat is… Cat is definitely, one hundred percent (she hears a quiet moan and Kara thinks that she’s going to be replaying that sound in her head over and over again for the next… well, ever), touching herself less than twenty feet away from Kara right now and god, she really shouldn’t be listening to this (Cat would kill her if she ever found out), but now that she’s started she really doesn’t know how to stop.

She’s pretty sure her brain has short-circuited so that she couldn’t turn off her superhearing even if she _wanted_ to (and she’s not entirely sure she _does_ want to), her whole body frozen and her hands clutching at the sheets on either side of her, legs pressing together in an attempt to stop the building ache between her thighs that only grows when Cat lets out another, louder moan.

Fuck, Kara can imagine it perfectly – Cat with her feet on the bed and her legs spread apart, one hand working between her thighs and the other palming at one of her breasts, and she closes her eyes and the image is imprinted on her eyelids and she knows it’s not going anywhere soon (she wonders if she can get away with drawing it the second she’s able, or if the risk of Cat ever finding it is a big enough reason to never dare).

Her breathing is laboured, matching Cat’s heavy breaths, and her heart is pounding loudly in her ears. She can hear the creak of the bed as Cat’s hips rock against her hand and bites down hard on her bottom lip as she imagines what it would be like to feel those hips rocking against her mouth, instead and god, she needs to stop, she needs to _leave_ , is what she needs to do, because there is no way in hell she’s going to be able to look Cat in the eye in the morning.

She hears Cat’s breath catch as she comes, and the words she breathes as she does sends Kara’s whole world grinding to a halt because she’s sure, mixed in with a low groan, she just heard Cat Grant say her name.

x-x-x

She sleeps fitfully, dreams filled with images of Cat in various compromising positions (Kara thinks that her favourite is definitely Cat leaning back against her desk, legs wrapped around Kara’s waist as she slipped two fingers inside of wet heat), and is awoken by the sound of the shower in the bathroom hissing to life.

Well.

Thinking about the fact that Cat Grant is most definitely naked in the room next door is certainly a way to get her from half-asleep to wide awake in less than five seconds, and there’s a shameful part of Kara that’s almost tempted to use her x-ray vision to catch a glimpse – she’d never do it, in a million years, because she respects Cat far too much for that, would never violate her trust, but she almost wishes that that particular power wasn’t in her repertoire so that the temptation isn’t there at all.

She can hear Cat humming quietly to a song she vaguely recognises from the radio, and Kara wonders how the hell she’s supposed to just continue like everything is normal when she’s ninety nine percent certain that her boss had gotten herself off to the thought of Kara the night before when she’d been just one room down.

God, she’s screwed. Because the second she looks as Cat she knows she’ll _know_ , know what Kara heard, and then she’s _doubly_ screwed because there’s no way she would have been able to if not for the super hearing.

At the sound of the shower clicking off and Cat’s quiet footsteps padding back into her bedroom, Kara pushes herself out of the bed and heads for the bathroom, hoping that splashing some cold water on her face will calm her racing heart (a cold shower would be much more effective, she’s sure, but Cat will kill her twice over if Kara messes with the temperature control on her shower, so she’s just going to have to settle for the sink, instead).

Except Cat apparently wasn’t finished in the bathroom, because she’s strolling through the door opposite her as Kara’s stepping inside, wearing nothing ( _nothing_ ) other than a robe, open at her waist, and Kara’s hand clenches on the doorframe so hard that it’s a wonder it doesn’t break, getting the glimpse of a naked Cat that she hadn’t allowed herself the luxury of earlier.

“If you’re quite done staring, Kiera,” Cat cuts through her churning (inappropriate) thoughts, her voice amused and a smirk on her wicked mouth.

“Oh, god, Miss Grant, I-I’m so sorry.” She turns her back to Cat, breathing loudly and her face flaming red as Cat chuckles quietly. “I thought you were done.”

“It’s my own fault for not locking the door, I suppose,” Cat continues, voice a slow drawl. “But I forgot my underwear – could you hand it to me, please?” Cat’s voice is sickly sweet, and Kara is certain that she knows exactly what she’s doing to her.

“Y-your… underwear?” 

“It’s right behind you.”

“O-okay.” She’s thankful that, when she turns around, Cat has cinched the belt of her robe so that she’s covered, though Kara’s breathing is still rapid and she’s pretty sure that, at the sight of the black lace thong and matching bra sitting on the counter behind her, if she could faint, she would have just done exactly that. “H-here.” She snatches them up and holds them towards Cat (tries to not imagine what it would feel like to tug that thong from between Cat’s legs and over her thighs) with a trembling hand.

“Thank you, Kiera.” Cat’s still smirking, her eyes crinkled upwards in amusement, and Kara only feels like she can breathe normally again once the door to Cat’s bedroom has closed behind her. She sends an inordinate amount of time in that bathroom (splashing herself with another faceful of water whenever she thinks about Cat in the shower stall behind her, hair sticking to the back of her neck, beads of water collecting between her breasts), before she feels brave enough to face Cat again, drying herself off before tugging her clothes from the day before on and wandering down to the kitchen.

Carter is perched on a stool at the breakfast bar with a bowl of cereal in-front of him, dressed for school and bleary-eyed, bruise shining on his cheek (though Kara’s pretty sure Cat’s attempted to cover the worst of it), whilst Cat stands opposite him with a mug of coffee in her hands. “Morning, Kara,” Carter chirps when she sees her, and she manages a small smile as she steadfastly avoids Cat’s gaze. “Want any breakfast?”

“Uh, no, I’m good, thanks.”

“You should eat,” Cat murmurs, and Kara makes the mistake of raising her head to find dark green eyes looking at her and feels yet another flush begin to colour her cheeks at the vivid memory of what Cat looks like beneath the fitted blouse she’s wearing.

She is _so_ not going to survive this day.

“Honestly, I’m fine.”

“Are you ill?” Carter inquires, squinting at her thoughtfully as she leans against the counter beside him. “You look awfully red.”

“I’m…” Cat drains the last of her coffee and bends to put the mug in the dishwasher, her skirt riding up the backs of her thighs. “Fine,” she squeaks, looking hastily away as Cat straightens up.

“You don’t _look_ fine,” Carter says suspiciously, but Kara is saved by the sound of a doorbell ringing throughout the apartment.

“That’ll be for you, Carter, have you got everything?”

“Mhm.” Carter’s spoon clatters into his bowl and he hugs his Mom goodbye before he surprises Kara by throwing his arms around her waist. “Thank you for coming last night,” he murmurs, practically beaming, before he bounces out of the door, both Kara and Cat watching him go.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” Kara asks, worrying at her bottom lip as she remembers the look on his face yesterday as he’d stood by her desk and told her about the bullies at his school.

“I… don’t know.” Cat looks uncertain, and Kara thinks that this might be the first time she’s ever seen that expression on her face. “The boys responsible have all been suspended and if anyone ever lays a hand on him again I’ll see if I can transfer him somewhere else. Not that that seems to help,” she adds with a sigh, and Kara thinks of all the phonecalls she’s already had to make during her time as Cat’s assistant – she’s helped Carter move schools at least three times.

“He’ll find his place,” Kara says, more confidently than she feels. “Kids are horrible and mean but they’re also quick to forget.”

“Speaking from experience?” Cat asks with a raised brow, and Kara shrugs.

“I got picked on a lot when I was a kid.”

“And how did you get them to stop?”

“Uh, my sister beat the crap out of them, usually.” Kara’s pretty sure she wouldn’t have survived high school without revealing her powers if not for her sister.

“If only we were all so lucky.” Cat’s lips quirk into a nostalgic smile, and it’s Kara’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

“ _You_ were picked on when you were in school?”

“I wasn’t exactly the most popular girl in the place, no.”

“Okay, that I cannot believe.” She tries to imagine it but fails – though, she supposes it does explain a lot. She’s about to ask for more details (Cat has never shared anything personal about herself to Kara, aside from things relating to her career and reluctantly about Adam, and she’s curious what else she can tease out of her), when the doorbell rings once again.

“Ah, that’ll be for us. Are you ready?” Kara nods, because she didn’t bring much with her yesterday and Cat hums, making her way to the front door, Kara following in her wake.

It’s awfully difficult for Kara to concentrate in the enclosed space of the town car as Cat chatters on about what she needs to get done today. Cat sits close to her, bare leg occasionally brushing against Kara’s, and she’s surrounded by the scent of Cat’s perfume and the shampoo she’d used in the shower that morning, and all she hears, in the gaps where Cat stops speaking, is the sound of her moaning Kara’s name.

“Kiera,” Cat snaps, and from the angry look on her face it mustn’t have been the first time she’d tried to get attention. “What the hell is wrong with you this morning?” Kara doesn’t answer, and Cat just tuts. “We’re outside of your wretched apartment building – go and get your things but be quick about it. I don’t want to get mugged whilst we’re waiting.”

“The neighbourhood isn’t _that_ bad,” Kara protests, and Cat just levels Kara with a gaze over the lenses of her glasses. “Do you… want to come up for coffee or…?”

“I don’t pay you enough to live in a good neighbourhood, Kiera,” Cat points out, attention already back on the iPad that sits in her lap. “And no, I would not like to step out of the safety of my car, thank you. Now, go.” She lifts a hand to wave it in the direction of the car door. “Chop, chop.”

Kara pushes it open and slips outside into the cool city air, slamming it behind her and hurrying up the steps into her building. She takes the stairs three at a time and uses a burst of super speed to get ready for the day, changing quickly before running a brush through her hair and tying it back up, reluctant to keep Cat waiting.

She expects her boss to be at least a little impressed that she’d been gone for less than ten minutes, but Cat doesn’t even acknowledge her when she gets back into the car, and doesn’t say a word until she’s practically shoving Kara out of the door at Noonan’s.

“Make sure it’s hot,” is the goodbye Kara gets as the door to the town car is pulled shut and it continues the short way down the street to where the CatCo building stands, tall and proud.

“I always do,” Kara mutters, even though Cat can’t hear her, stepping inside and getting Cat’s usual, and one for herself – she can feel the lingering effects of not getting enough sleep the night before, and could use the caffeine to perk her up.

She sips from her own coffee as she walks down the street, using a burst of heat vision on Cat’s in the empty elevator before it opens onto her floor, heading into her office before she does anything else and setting it on her desk.

“Thank you, Kiera,” Cat says distractedly, frowning down at her iPad as Kara hovers uncertainly in-front of her, waiting for the list of instructions Cat rattles off for her each morning. They don’t come immediately, and she takes the opportunity to curse the fact that the way that Cat is leaning forwards over her desk gives her an un-obstructed view down her blouse, and she wishes she was strong enough to avert her eyes but god help her she _isn’t_.

She remembers bare flesh and gasps and groans, the images her imagination had conjured up of Cat splayed out across her bed (across this _desk_ ), and swallows thickly, curling her hands into fists and hoping that the bite of her nails into her palms will be enough to distract her.

It’s not.

“Kiera!” Cat snaps her out of her daydreams and she blinks away the tantalising image of a naked Cat, focusing on the furious glare that’s being aimed her way in the hope that it’ll chase away any lingering traces of desire.

(It doesn’t).

“Are you even listening to me?” Cat asks, climbing to her feet and splaying her hands against her desk to lean over it and oh, god, that is _so_ not helping this entire situation. “Is this… is this because of what happened this morning?” Cat’s voice changes, becomes almost… anxious instead of stern. “Because if I’ve made you feel uncomfortable, if you’re concerned about lines blurring between us and would like to put some boundaries in place - ”

“No, no, no,” Kara rushes out because _yes_ , she might be affected by catching a glimpse of her boss in the buff that morning but it is definitely _not_ for the reasons Cat is thinking. “I had fun last night. Beating you at Scrabble was a highlight.” She tries to lighten the mood, but Cat’s lips don’t so much as twitch. “I liked spending some time with Carter. Spending some time with… with you.” She says that last part a little quietly, because sometimes she feels like she’s treading on thin ice around Cat, and she’s never quite sure when she’ll say something to make it crack. “I’m sorry I’ve been… off this morning. I won’t let it happen again.”

“Ensure that it doesn’t,” Cat gripes after a few moments of loaded silence, and Kara nods. “I need you to chase James up on the spreads for our next issue – and while you’re there ask him when I’m getting my next Supergirl interview.” Kara ignores the pointed look Cat throws her way as she hastily scribbles down Cat’s every word. “My mother,” Cat’s lip curls as she says the word, “is in town next week, so I’ll need you to book an appointment with my therapist and schedule me enough meetings so that I’m never here. I left a list of phonecalls I need you to make on your desk, and after you’re done I need you back in here to help me prep for the board meeting this afternoon.”

“Yes, Miss Grant.” She scurries from Cat’s office once she’s finished writing, and finds Lucy Lane perched on the edge of her desk, mid-conversation with Winn. She pauses when Kara appears, eyeing her curiously.

“How come Cat didn’t yell at you for being like, thirty minutes late?” Lucy asks as Kara reaches for the list Cat had left for her, eyebrows knitting together in concentration as she reads the list of names.

“I don’t know,” she replies, distracted, “maybe she’s just in a good mood this morning.”

“Cat is _never_ in a good mood,” Winn mutters, and Kara doesn’t really think that’s fair – but then she supposes no-one in this office has gotten to know Cat as well as she has.

(No-one in this office has heard the sound of their boss getting herself off to the thought of her assistant, either, but Kara thinks that’s a thought she definitely needs to keep to herself).

“But then _why_ is she in such a good mood?” Lucy ponders, and Kara doesn’t like the glint of mischief she sees in her eyes when she raises her head and meets her gaze. “Is it _maybe_ because you spent the night with her last night?” Kara had been about to take a sip of her quickly cooling coffee and she chokes at Lucy’s words, nearly spitting it all over herself, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes as it stings the back of her throat.

“W-what? Why… That’s… that’s ridiculous. Absurd.” She laughs, but it sounds fake, and even Winn is looking at her with wide eyes now. “Why would you even say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know – maybe because I saw you getting out the back of her town car this morning?” Kara has absolutely no reply to that, can only blink at Lucy in quiet horror. “So? What’s the scoop?”

“T-there is no _scoop_ ,” she hisses, lowering her voice and glancing over her shoulder, terrified that people might overhear and get the wrong idea. “I didn’t… nothing _happened_.” Nothing she’d ever admit to, anyway. “Carter invited me over to dinner last night so I went, and it got pretty late by the time we were done so… Cat said I could stay the night. In _separate_ beds,” she stresses, because Lucy looks like Christmas has come early – she knows about Kara’s crush, had called her out on it weeks ago, and is practically bursting with glee.

“Did she cook for you? _What_ did she cook for you? Did she try and get you drunk? Did _she_ get drunk? What did you do when Carter went to bed? What did you talk about? Tell me _everything_.” Winn looks about as horrified as Kara feels by Lucy’s excitement, and Kara throws a glance over her shoulder into Cat’s office to check that she’s paying them no attention.

She isn’t – she’s back to staring hard at her computer screen with a tiny crease between her eyebrows that Kara finds adorable, and she must stare for a moment too long because she hears Lucy clear her throat from behind her.

“Oh, you have _so_ got it bad.”

“Shut _up_.” Winn looks uncomfortable, shifts awkwardly in his seat, and Lucy just rolls her eyes when she notices.

“So, when’s your next date?”

“It was not a date!”

“Suuuuuuure it wasn’t.”

“Kiera!” Kara’s head turns at the sound of her work-name to find Cat pacing her office and groans, because that is _never_ a good sign.

“Looks like your girlfriend needs you.” Kara shoots Lucy a murderous glare but she just chuckles, clearly loving this entire situation.

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t,” Lucy replies in a sing-song voice as Kara scrambles towards Cat’s door. “You especially won’t when my match-making skills get the two of you together. I expect to be the maid of honour at your wedding!”

She calls that last part as Kara’s making her way into Cat’s office, loud enough for a couple of people around them to look up, curiously, and Kara groans, praying that Cat didn’t manage to hear it. She flips Lucy the bird behind her back, the sound of her quiet laughter ringing in her ears as Kara shoulders open the door to Cat’s office, ready for a list of new demands.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Carter puts his next plan into action, but the arrival of Cat's mother threatens everything.

Six days later, Kara walks back into the bullpen after spending the morning chasing up layouts and articles for their next issue to find Carter sitting on one of the couches in Cat's office, a sullen expression on his face, an ice pack pressed against his cheek and another resting on the back of his hand.

Cat is stood in-front of him with her hands on her hips, and Kara from tell from just her body language that she's absolutely furious, and debates, for one long moment, whether she should sneak away and come back later.

But then Carter glances away from his Mom's ranting and catches her eye, and the pleading look he throws her makes her mind up for her. She gathers herself with a sigh before rapping her knuckles against Cat's glass door. She spins, fire in her eyes, but when she sees it's Kara she jerks her head in an invitation to come in.

"I have um, the new layouts for you," she starts off with some good news, but Cat's expression doesn’t change as she reaches out to snatch the papers from Kara's hand. "What happened?"

"I walked into a door," Carter answers without looking either one of them in the eye.

"You did, huh?" Kara humours him, crouching down and gently prying both ice packs away from his skin to reveal a fist-shaped bruise on his cheek and split skin across his knuckles. "Cause it kinda looks like you got into a fight."

"Maybe you'll be able to convince him that protecting the people that hurt him isn't going to do anyone any favours," Cat spits through clenched teeth before she stalks away and out onto her balcony – Kara wonders if she's listening at the door, but doesn’t dare use her powers in-front of Carter to check.

She can hear the sound of her breathing, though – ragged and hitched, like she's trying not to cry.

"You wanna tell me why you're lying to your Mom, buddy?" She turns her attention to Carter, who looks so small and sad, a world away from the excited kid who'd bounced his way to school just a handful of days ago.

"She's going to make me switch schools," he replies, staring at his shoes, his bottom lip jutting out. "And I don't want to."

"But if you're having issues then - "

"I'll have issues wherever I go!" The words explode out of him, his eyes hurt and resentful as he finally raises his head. "Every time I move it's always the same, so I don't get why I can't just stay there and deal with it."

"Because you shouldn't have to deal with it," Kara murmurs quietly, covering the back of his uninjured hand with her own and squeezing gently.

"But it's just going to happen again somewhere new and I hate moving, I hate being the new kid – it just makes it worse."

"What if I told you," Kara says slowly, an idea (probably a stupid idea, but still), beginning to form in her mind. "That I might be able to get a certain caped someone to drop you off at your first day at your new school?"

"Really?" Carter's eyes go wide. "Supergirl?"

"I mean, I'd have to get James to ask her, but... I think she'd be willing to help a good kid like you out. If," she stresses, and watches his face fall. "You let me go and tell your Mom what really happened."

"Fine," he agrees after a moment of deliberation, pout deepening, and Kara ruffles his hair gently as she rises to her feet. She leaves him on the couch as she edges towards the balcony, finding Cat standing with her arms draped over the railing and looking out at the city below.

"He didn’t want to transfer schools again," Kara tells her as she goes to stand beside Cat, curling her own hands over the railing and looking straight ahead. "That's why he lied to you."

"He's going to have to transfer anyway," Cat replies, voice tight. "Because he's been expelled."

"What?" Kara is aghast. "What for?"

"Fighting," Cat sighs, her whole body seeming to deflate with it. "Apparently the teacher who broke it up got there just in time to see Carter get a hit in, but because she didn’t see the rest of it and it was the word of five students against one... It's easier to get rid of the one."

"Oh, god, Cat I'm so sorry, I never would have taught him that if I knew - "

“Don’t apologise,” Cat cuts her off with a shake of her head. “I’m _glad_ you taught him, I… I don’t know how much worse his injuries might have been if you hadn’t. So thank you.” Kara’s so unused to being offered praise from Cat that she doesn’t know how to react. “How did you persuade him to switch schools?” Cat asks, saving her from trying to find a response.

“Huh?”

“You said he didn’t want to transfer, not doesn’t. So how did you get him to change his mind?” Cat really doesn’t miss a thing.

“Oh, um,” Kara reaches up to fiddle with her glasses, pushing them up her nose. “I kinda made him a deal.” Cat turns to face her, one eyebrow quirked, waiting for Kara to explain herself. “I… said I’d get James to ask Supergirl to take him to school. No-one will dare touch him after that.”

“And you think she’d be willing to do that?” There’s that look in Cat’s eye again, like she sees so much more than Kara’s willing to show, and she forces her expression to remain neutral as she shrugs.

“I think she’d be happy to help out the woman that helped brand her.”

“Hm.” Cat’s gaze is unwavering, and Kara finds herself unable to look away. She’s trapped, held in place by deep green, and the spell is only broken by the sound of the balcony door creaking open behind them.

“Mom?” Carter pokes his head out, and Kara lets out a quiet breath as Cat looks away, turning her body to face her son. “Are you mad?”

“No, sweetheart, I’m not mad.” Carter approaches, and Cat wraps her arms around him, pulling him into her and resting her chin on the top of his head. “I just worry about you.”

“I know.” Kara smiles softly as she watches them – it’s rare for her to see Cat like this, so relaxed and at ease, and she thinks that they bring out the best in one another. “Did Kara tell you her plan?”

“She did.”

“Can we try it?”

“If Supergirl agrees, I don’t see why not.” Carter beams, but Cat’s looking at her with those knowing eyes again, and Kara looks hastily away. “Now, I think we’ve both spent enough time shirking our responsibilities for one day, don’t you? I need you to chase up some interviews for me. And do you have the spreads I asked James for?”

“On my desk.”

“Show me.”

x-x-x

“Kara?” She glances up from her laptop screen at the sound of Carter’s voice, turning her chair towards him with a smile ready on her face. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure you can, buddy, what’s up?”

“It’s um, it’s about my Mom.” He glances over his shoulder as he says it, but Cat is on the phone – Kara knows it’s with her mother just from the way she’s got her eyes closed, fingers rubbing at her temples – paying them no mind.

“I’m listening,” she encourages, and Carter glances around the bullpen before he speaks again, keeping his voice lowered even though there are few people left working.

“It’s her birthday.” Kara’s mouth opens in shock, because she’s pretty sure that there isn’t a single person alive, outside of Cat’s family, who knows the date (or even her actual age), and she’s pretty sure that Cat wouldn’t appreciate her assistant being on that very short list.

“I… does she know you’re telling me this?” Kara whispers back, because it seems appropriate for the situation.

“No, she’d kill me if she found out, but…” He glances over his shoulder again, but Cat still isn’t looking their way. “She never celebrates it, and she hasn’t for as long as I can remember but… I was going to try and make her dinner. And I could use some help.” He looks at her with wide, hopeful eyes, and Kara wonders how Cat can ever deny him anything.

“I… don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Please? I think she’d like it.”

“I don’t think so, kid. Unless I could sneak out before she came home…” Kara trails off, mind running through the possibilities.

“No!” Carter says quickly, and Kara frowns at him. “I mean… I think she’d like you there, too. Even if she’d never admit it. She likes you.”

“I think you’re getting me mixed up with someone else,” Kara chuckles, because Cat _tolerates_ her because she’s good at her job, but that’s very different to actually wanting her around.

But then she thinks about the gasp of her name, in the dead of night not so long ago, and wonders if maybe that’s not the case after all.

“No, she does, I _know_ she does. Please, Kara? She does so much for me, I just want do one thing for her.”

“You’re guilt-tripping me?” She asks him, raising an eyebrow. “Seriously?” He just keeps looking at her with pleading eyes, and she sighs. “I guess you really are Cat Grant’s son,” she murmurs quietly. “Alright, fine. But if she fires me for being at her house unannounced, it’s on you,” she warns, but he just grins and throws his arms around her neck.

“Thank you!” She wraps a gentle arm around his back, and catches sight of Cat watching them through the walls of her office, her expression soft – it hardens when she notices the direction of Kara’s stare. “Let me just go and ask her if you can take me home.”

“She won’t agree to that.”

“Please,” he says with another grin. “She won’t say no to me.” Kara’s not entirely sure about that, considering what had happened the _last_ time she’d been entrusted to watch Carter in Cat’s absence, but she’s very quickly proved wrong when Cat emerges from her office a few moments later.

“You really volunteered to take him home?”

“It can’t be fun for him, being stuck here with nothing to do,” she lies through her teeth, hoping that Carter had spun a similar story. “And it’s really no trouble at all.”

“Are you sure?” Cat asks softly, and Kara doesn’t think that Cat’s ever asked her something before – demanded, yes, but this? This is different, and it makes her chest ache in a not-unpleasant way.

“Yeah, honestly, it’s fine. I mean, if my boss will let me leave early, of course. She can be kind of a hard ass.” She fears, for one heart-stopping second, that she might have pushed it too far as Cat just blinks at her – but then her face transforms, a smirk playing at the edges of her lips. 

“I suppose I can spare you for the night, just this once.” Kara grins, and Cat’s face breaks into a small smile before she turns on her heel and struts away. “I’ll call a car and let you know when it’s here.” Kara _tries_ not to let her gaze drop to Cat’s ass as she disappears back into her office but god, it looks magnificent in the skirt she’s wearing today and she can’t _help_ but stare.

She’s been doing it all day – she hopes Cat hasn’t noticed.

“Hey, Kara,” she turns at the sound of her name to see Lucy leaning against the edge of Winn’s empty desk, “you might want to cool it with the heart eyes. I can see your superboner from here.”

“Oh my god,” she groans, spinning her chair away as Lucy cackles at her own joke. “Go away.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that.” She pushes herself off of Winn’s desk and comes to lean against hers, instead. “It’s true, though. You’re kind of obvious about the whole ‘wanting to bang your boss’ thing.”

“Will you - ” She turns her head to check that neither Cat nor Carter are within hearing distance, and thanks her lucky stars that Cat had shut her office door behind her. “Shut up? One of these days she’s going to hear you.”

“Yeah, I’m waiting for that day because then you’ll finally get over yourselves and give in to whatever sexual tension’s between the two of you.”

“There is no - ”

“Oh, there is. But you keep on denying it, if you like.” She pats Kara on the shoulder sympathetically before she stands and heads towards her office. “It’s your loss!” She calls just before she disappears, and Kara groans when she sees that Cat’s head is poking out of the door of her own office, an eyebrow arching as she overhears the end of Lucy’s sentence.

“Car’s here,” is all she says, though her lips are pressed into a thin line, and Kara nods, shutting off her computer and gathering up her things. “I shouldn’t be here too much longer, if you’re really okay watching him?”

“It’s fine, Miss Grant, honestly. We’ll have fun, right Carter? You can beat me at Settlers of Catan again.” His eyes light up as he bounds towards her, Cat squeezing his shoulder as he passes her.

“Be good, Carter,” she warns.

“I always am, Mom. Come on, Kara.” He grabs her hand and tugs, and Kara waves towards Cat before allowing herself to be dragged towards the elevator. “You need to persuade the driver to stop at the grocery store.”

“Do you know what we’re making?” She asks as she presses the button, trying to keep her voice low because she’s pretty sure that she can still feel Cat’s gaze on them. “Because I’m telling you now, I’m not a great cook.”

“I was thinking something like lasagne,” Carter muses as the elevator dings and they step inside. “Because I know she likes it and I’ve seen her make it before and it didn’t look too difficult.”

“You haven’t seen me in a kitchen, but go on.”

“I have all the ingredients, here.” He pulls out a tiny piece of paper from his pocket and hands it over – Kara squints down at it and shakes her head when she realises that it’s a meticulously drawn out list.

“Just how long have you been planning this for?” Kara asks curiously, and Carter very hastily looks away as he shrugs.

“Not long.”

“Uh-huh.” Even though he’s not facing her, she still notices his wide grin and shakes her head as she follows him out of the lobby and onto the street outside. It’s not too hard to get their driver to make a quick stop on the way (Kara’s pretty sure Cat’s got them all trained to never deny her a thing, and they assume that any of her passengers are afforded the same treatment), and she lets an excited Carter drag her around the grocery store, grabbing everything they need for the night.

On a whim she splashes out on a bottle of Cat’s favourite brand of cognac, because it is her birthday after all (even if Kara technically shouldn’t know that).

Back at the apartment, she lets Carter show her where the pots and pans live whilst they unpack everything they’d bought, and Kara bites her lip as she scans through the recipe he thrusts at her when they’re done, because she doesn’t _do_ well in kitchens and she’s kind of terrified of burning or staining or just plain old _destroying_ anything in Cat Grant’s apartment.

But then she looks at Carter’s face, and knows that he’s just trying to do something nice for his Mom and she knows that Cat deserves it, so she takes a deep breath, and tells herself that she can do this.

She’s Supergirl, for Rao’s sake – she can cook a meal for her boss.

That she may or may not have a massive, all-consuming crush on.

Who she’d been fantasizing about ever since she’d last been in this place, after she’d heard Cat’s breathy sigh of her name.

God, she should _not_ be thinking about this.

_Get it together, Kara_.

She gets Carter to measure out ingredients for the sauce as she begins to fry the mince, keeping one eye on the pan and one on Carter, elevated to reach the countertops by standing on a box, making sure he’s being careful because Cat will never forgive her if Kara lets anything happen to her son.

But things actually go pretty smoothly, and Kara’s thinking that maybe she could get the hang of this cooking thing. Carter stands by her shoulder and tells her all about what his favourite superhero has been up to lately, and Kara smiles to herself as she sees the bright look in his eye as he gushes about Supergirl, practically vibrating with excitement when Kara tells him that she’ll be there to drop him of on his first day at his new school the following Monday.

Once the lasagne’s in the oven and Kara’s got a timer set, Carter helps her clean up the mess they’ve made before dragging her away to play Settlers of Catan while they wait. That’s how Cat finds them – curled up on the couch with Kara losing spectacularly – when she strolls through the front door almost an hour later, an annoyed scowl on her face that fades as soon as her eyes land on Kara and her son.

“Have you been behaving yourself, young man?” She asks as she comes to stand at the back of the couch, ruffling Carter’s hair and making him grimace as he squirms away.

“I always do, Mom.”

“Mm, that’s debatable.” Cat turns to drop her handbag on one of the stools in the kitchen, and freezes when she sees the bottle of cognac that Kara had bought sitting on the counter, lifting it gingerly between her hands. “What’s this?”

“Oh, um…” Kara fidgets nervously as Cat’s gaze settles on her, “Carter kinda told me what day it was so I-I thought I’d get you something. Happy birthday.” The corners of Cat’s lips curl into a slight sneer at the phrase, and Kara starts to wonder whether agreeing to Carter’s plan was such a good idea, after all.

“He did, did he?” Cat’s eyes are on Carter then, laser-focused and _angry_ , but he barely even reacts to her glare, just stares straight back at her.

“Don’t be mad at him,” Kara rushes to rescue him as Cat sets the bottle back down on the counter. “He only told me because he wanted to do something special for you. T-there’s food in the oven. It should be nearly ready.”

“You… you cooked for me?” Cat looks stunned, eyes widening slightly in surprise as her eyes flicker back to Kara, and she swallows beneath the weight of that gaze, not sure whether Cat is _happy_ about this or not.

“Uh, well, we both did.”

“You cooked for me?” Cat repeats, fingers drumming a distracting rhythm on-top of black marble. “In my home? Without my permission?”

“I… yes?” She can’t read the look on Cat’s face, and it’s that that spurs her to move, clambering quickly to her feet as she fidgets with her glasses nervously. “I… Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, you probably don’t want me to intrude today of all days, you should be spending it with your family.” The words come out of her in a rush, a barrage that refuses to be stopped – it’s a nervous habit, one she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to break. “I… I’ll just go. Have a good evening, Miss Grant.”

She darts past Cat and out of the door before the other woman barely even has time to blink, because what was she _thinking_? She’d been fooling herself with the notion that Cat might want her back, that Cat would be _happy_ about Kara inviting herself to spend the evening with her, of spending her _birthday_ with her, and Kara really needs to stop listening to Carter because he is definitely getting her closer and closer to being fired with every passing day.

She’s not _trying_ to listen into the Grant’s apartment as she’s hastily pressing the button for the elevator, but she catches the sound of Carter’s voice and once he’s caught her attention it’s hard for her to tune the rest of the conversation out.

_“Mom!”_ She hears him hiss, sounding both upset and annoyed. _“What are you_ doing _?”_

_“What do you mean what am I doing? What are_ you _doing?”_ She shouldn’t use her x-ray vision either, but she does – she sees Cat standing behind the couch with her hands on her hips, wishes she were facing the other way so she could read her expression, too. _“I don’t know what silly notion you’ve got in your head, but - ”_

_“It’s not a silly notion!”_ Carter practically shouts, looking more visibly upset than Kara has ever seen him. _“I’m trying to_ help _you, Mom, you deserve to be happy and - ”_

_“I_ am _happy,”_ Cat counters immediately, but Kara can see from the set of her shoulders and the way she’s been sneaking more drinks than usual lately that she’s lying. _“And I’d appreciate it if you stopped trying to meddle - ”_

_“I wouldn’t have to if you’d just admit the way you feel!”_ The elevator dings to a stop and the doors open, but Kara finds herself unable to step inside, too caught up in what she can overhear. _“Would you just please go after her? I know you had fun when she came over last time, even if you won’t admit it. You shouldn’t spend your birthday alone, Mom.”_

_“I have you.”_

_“But you deserve_ more _.”_ Carter’s expression is earnest, and Kara’s heart is pounding in her chest because god, it sounds like Cat might have feelings for her after all, and she doesn’t exactly know what she’s supposed to _do_ with that information. _“Please, Mom? I_ like _Kara. I like spending time with her. And I know you do, too.”_

_“Fine,”_ Cat sighs, clenching her jaw as she spins on her heel and stalks towards the front door. _“But I’m only doing this for you. Don’t get any ideas.”_

_“Yeah, yeah,”_ Carter mutters, too quietly for Cat to hear as her heels click across the wooden floor. _“You keep telling yourself that, Mom.”_

Kara presses the button for the elevator once more, because she’s not entirely sure whether she _wants_ Cat to ask her to come back inside – she’s too scared of what might happen if she says yes, terrified of getting drawn in, of falling harder for Cat than she already has, because there are so many reasons why they should never be anything more than they are now.

But then Cat is behind her and her hand is closing around Kara’s wrist, fingertips burning into her skin, and Kara knows that she wouldn’t be able to tear herself away even if she tried.

“Kara, I’m sorry.” She turns to see Cat’s eyes are sincere, and she’s too surprised to reply, because she’s never heard Cat Grant apologise to anyone before, ever. “I… reacted poorly. You know my date of birth is a closely guarded secret.”

“One that’s safe with me,” she promises, wondering if Cat can feel the frantic beat of her pulse beneath her fingers. “I swear.”

“God help me,” Cat mutters, although there’s a gleam in her eye. “You’re terrible at keeping secrets.”

“I am _not_ ,” she protests, because she’s keeping a pretty damn big one, and even if Cat _has_ figured it out it’s not like she knows for _sure_. “Maybe I _will_ tell everyone.”

“Then I’ll fire you,” Cat replies sweetly. “Thank you,” she says then, voice turning more serious as she glances over her shoulder. “For everything you’ve done today. For Carter, for the cognac… for dinner.”

“It’s no trouble,” she shrugs, shuffling a little awkwardly under the intensity of Cat’s gaze. “Everyone deserves to have a good birthday.”

“Even the person that makes your life a living hell?” Cat asks with an arched eyebrow, and Kara lets out a light chuckle because she’s rarely thought about Cat like that, ever.

“You’re not _that_ bad,” she replies quietly, catching her bottom lip between her teeth and trying to ignore the way Cat’s eyes drop to watch the movement. “I know that there’s a caring, compassionate person beneath the indifference you want the rest of the world to see.”

“You think so?” She sounds uncertain, and Kara twists her wrist out of Cat’s grasp so that she can squeeze the back of her hand gently.

“I _know_ so,” she insists, because she’s seen it, so many times – in the fierce concern she has for Carter, in the love she has for him, in the way Kara sees her soften around him. It’s seeping over into some of their interactions, too – the way she had tried to protect Kara from Livewire with little regard for her own safety, the way she’d rushed to get a bandaid the day Kara had split her skin picking up glass in her office, the entire night that Kara had spent in this very apartment building, not all that long ago.

She’s had feelings for Cat for a long time, but every time Kara finds Cat watching her with soft eyes and a fond smile, she falls a little harder.

“Would you like to join us for dinner?” Cat says then, deftly changing the subject as she blinks away the affection swimming in her eyes. “It would make Carter happy.” Kara’s already opening her mouth to agree, but Cat’s speaking again before she can get the words out. “And… it’d make me happy, too.”

“I’d like that.”

x-x-x

Kara wakes up the next morning in Cat’s guest room, wearing Cat’s clothes and cocooned in sheets that smell of her laundry detergent. The previous evening had gone much the same as the last time Kara had spent the night – they’d had dinner (the lasagne actually hadn’t been bad and Cat’s praise had had her flushing so badly that Carter had laughed while Cat had smirked), played some games, and when Carter had gone to bed she’d beat a disgruntled Cat at another game of Scrabble.

She looked adorable when she pouted, and it just made Kara about a thousand times more determined to win.

Cat’s conversation with Carter had been playing on her mind all evening, but she’d never brought it up. She couldn’t, not without acknowledging the truth that she was sure Cat knew, but was terrified to confirm. She didn’t think Cat would expose her, not now, but… she _needed_ her job for her sanity, despised the thought of being Supergirl full-time and losing her sense of normalcy.

Losing _Cat_.

It was really kind of pathetic, the hold Cat had over her – she’d brushed against Kara’s bare leg with her own when she’d leaned over to put a word on the board last night and she’d nearly had a heart attack, and when Cat had glanced up at her sharp intake of breath there had been a knowing and mischievous glint in her eye that had made Kara terrified (and exhilarated) about what might come next.

But Cat had been careful not to touch her again, and it was maddening. Kara was terrified of pushing, of overstepping and acting on something that might not be there (and god, there were so many complications that she could probably fill a whole CatCo issue with them), so she’d kept her distance too, even though there was a part of her that wanted to brush her fingertips across the back of Cat’s hand, or over her knee, or against the slope of her cheek, just to see what she would do in return.

She’d plucked up the courage, when Cat was standing in the doorway of her guestroom after leading Kara into it, demanding she stay the night (Kara might have had one or three glasses of the cognac just so Cat wouldn’t be comfortable with making her walk home and yeah, okay, so she definitely has a Cat Grant related problem), to ask her if there was anything else she wished for that could have made her birthday better.

And Cat had paused and considered the question with dark, curious eyes, watching Kara where she stood, shoulder leaning back against the doorframe and Cat’s clothes tucked under her arm, and she’d wondered, for one brief second as she’d watched Cat’s eyes dip to her lips, whether Cat was about to kiss her.

But instead she’d smiled softly, and murmured quietly that no, it had been perfect and there were no two people she’d rather spend it with before she’d bid Kara goodnight and slipped away, and Kara had been too stunned to think of a suitable, non-stuttered reply.

She’d kept an ear on Cat’s room (even though she knew she shouldn’t), but that night she was silent aside from the quiet, laboured sound of her breathing as she slept, and after a while, the sound of it had lulled Kara herself into a deep sleep.

She wakes feeling refreshed, sure that that was the best night’s sleep she’s had for a long, long while (though her dreams, as they always have been lately, are still haunted by Cat), and rolls out of bed and into the bathroom.

The mirror is steamed up from Cat’s shower, rivulets of water still dripping down the tile in the stall, and Kara splashes water on her face and has to admit is a little disappointed that she can’t hear Cat moving around in her bedroom – she’s not going to be getting a free glimpse of bare skin today, it seems.

She tugs on her clothes from the day before and makes her way out of the guest room and down the hall – and freezes when she sees that Cat isn’t alone in her kitchen, and curses herself for not paying attention to her superhearing because if she _had_ , she would’ve slipped out of the window, instead.

Because Cat is standing behind the island in the centre of the kitchen holding a mug of coffee so tightly that her knuckles are white and it shakes with the force of her grip, and standing opposite her is a woman with short dark hair that strikes a fear into Kara’s heart greater than that she’s felt when facing any one of her enemies.

Kara had completely forgotten that Cat’s mother was supposed to be coming to town – but judging from the irritated look on Cat’s face, this particular visit to her apartment hadn’t been planned. She notices Kara hovering in the hallway, meets her gaze and subtly shakes her head; Kara nods before shuffling quietly backwards down the hall, but not before Cat’s mother notices the line of Cat’s sight and turns to glance over her shoulder, and Kara freezes all over again.

“Really, Kitty?” Katherine Grant asks, with an arched brow and a look of distaste as her eyes scan across Kara’s body. “Fucking your assistant?” Kara flushes in the face of Katherine’s disdain as she dismisses her with a glance and turns back to face Cat. “What a cliché.”

“It is none of your business what I do or do not do in my personal life, _mother_.” Cat spits the word like it’s poison, her eyes flashing dangerously – Kara doesn’t know _what_ to think about the fact that Cat doesn’t deny the accusation. “Kara,” she says, both voice and glare softening as their eyes meet, “I believe Carter’s hiding in his bedroom, could you perhaps go and fetch him and take him for breakfast somewhere? There’s a car downstairs; I’ll meet you back at the office.”

“O-okay.” Kara’s just glad she has the opportunity to escape from the building tension she can feel in the room – she doesn’t want to be anywhere near the place when it inevitably boils over. She finds Carter perched on the edge of his bed, swinging his feet as he plays on his phone, and he glances up with fear in his eyes that quickly changes to relief when he sees that it’s Kara creaking his door open. “Come on, kid. We’re going out.”

“Really?” He looks hopeful as he pushes himself to his feet, and Kara waits for him to pull on his shoes, shutting the bedroom door behind her as she hears the yelling begin from behind her. “Good. My Mom gets really stressed when Grandmother comes to visit.”

“I wonder why,” Kara mutters, mostly to herself but she thinks from the smile that tugs at the edges of Carter’s lips that he must have heard her. “You hungry?”

“Yeah. I wanted to go and get cereal but I saw her standing in the kitchen so I ran away before she saw me. She’s not very nice.” Kara thinks that that’s an understatement, squeezes Carter’s shoulder gently to get rid of the crestfallen look that takes over his face. She knows that Katherine Grant is his only living grandparent, and she’s not exactly the warmest person Kara’s ever met. Add to that how tightly wound Cat, the most important person in his life, gets whenever her mother is in town, and she imagines that he must dread Katherine’s visits almost as much as his mother does.

“Well, we’ll go and get you something nice; I know a place that does the best pancakes in National City.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. Come on.” She rests her hands on his shoulders and steers him out of his bedroom and down the hall, trying to hurry him along so he doesn’t catch any of the argument that’s still raging in his kitchen. He clamps his own hands over his ears, so he misses the next accusation Cat’s mother sends hurtling her way.

“You need to be careful who you get into bed with, Kitty - ”

“ _Watch_ what you’re saying in-front of my _son_ , mother,” Cat is hissing in reply, splaying her hands on the counter and leaning across  it, deadly fire in her eyes that would make even Kara cower.

“Well, he must know you’re sleeping with her if they’re that familiar – how old is she, Kitty? Twenty? You really trust your flavour of the week with your son?”

Kara slams the front door to the apartment behind them, breathing out a long breath and trying to dispel the anger swirling in her gut from Katherine’s words – she makes a mental note to ensure that Cat’s bar is well-stocked because she’s sure she’s going to be using it today, and to ensure that they’re got a steady supply of Advil, too, considering the yelling.

“You okay, Carter?” She asks as they wait for the elevator, but he only nods, chewing on his bottom lip and looking pensive – so far away from the bubbly energy he’d had yesterday when he was persuading Kara to help him with Cat’s birthday plans. “Your Mom’s gonna be okay, too.” He nods again, and Kara sighs, leaving him to his silence as they slide into the car that’s waiting for them on the street outside – she tells the driver to swing by her apartment before they head to the diner she has in mind for breakfast, and Carter perks up when she asks him if he wants to see the inside.

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course. Come on.” He practically bounds up the stairs beside her and she laughs as she unlocks her front door and lets him inside. He pauses just inside the doorway, taking it in with wide eyes, before he makes a beeline for the easel she has set up next to her window.

She paints when her mind is tumultuous, and it’s been spinning more than ever lately, the harder she falls for Cat. The one she’d been working on is the city skyline from her apartment, and Carter’s eyes widen as he stands in-front of it.

“This is amazing,” he breathes quietly, reaching out a tentative hand to brush against the white splash of the moon, as if he’s checking it’s real. “I always wished I could paint properly, they never showed us how in art class.”

“I can show you,” she offers as she comes to stand behind him, eyeing the painting critically – it’s not her best (no, those are the rare few she allows herself to paint of her boss, hidden away under her bed where prying eyes (namely her sister) will never see them), but it isn’t her worst, either.

“You’d really do that?”

“’Course I would.” He looks so surprised, like he can scarcely imagine why Kara would willingly offer to spend time with him, and it breaks her heart. “I’d love to. I’ve never taught anyone else before though,” she warns. “So I’m probably not very good.”

“That’s okay,” he shrugs, attention wandering as he peers around the rest of Kara’s apartment, gravitating next to her bookshelf and looking through the games that she keeps at the bottom of it. “You have almost as many as we do.”

“I told you,” she replies with a small smile. “I love board games. We have office game night once a month. You could come to one, if you wanted. You and your Mom.”

“Somehow I don’t think she’d agree to that.” There’s a small smile on his face, and Kara wonders if, like her, he’s imaging the look of distaste that would line Cat’s face at the thought of willingly spending time with her employees.

“Yeah, probably not. You okay out here while I get changed?” He nods and Kara slips into her bedroom, changing quickly and hastily doing her make-up and running a brush through her hair, conscious of not being too quick lest Carter get suspicious.

Her heart nearly stops when she walks out of her room to see him rifling through the stack of paintings she keeps pushed to one side of her apartment – he’s looking at one she’d painted of Krypton, from the little she can remember of it, though he steps sheepishly away when he hears the door shut behind her.

“It’s alright,” she says quietly as he shuffles his weight from one foot to the other, eyes looking a little guilty. “You can look.”

“What is it?” He asks as he picks the painting up once again, holding it carefully as he stretches his arms out in-front of him to take the whole thing in. “It looks really cool.”

“A better place,” she murmurs as she comes to stand behind him, feeling that familiar ache she gets in her chest whenever she thinks of Krypton for too long, whenever she remembers everything that she’d lost.

But then, just like she always does, she takes a deep breath and she reminds herself of the life that she’s made here on Earth – her sister, Eliza, her friends and her job, Cat and Carter, and she reminds herself that this is her home, too.

“Come on,” she says with a chuckle as Carter’s stomach grumbles loudly. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

x-x-x

When Katherine Grant strolls into the CatCo office later that day, her heels clicking ominously on the tile, Kara is quick to relocate Carter, who had been working quietly beside her at her desk, into James’ office as Katherine makes herself at home in Cat’s.

Cat herself is at a lunch meeting. She’s been livid all day, still visibly shaken from the confrontation with her mother that morning, and had shut herself in her office the second Kara had handed her a latte and had only emerged when it was time for her meeting.

Kara was worried.

She’d barely even acknowledged Carter, but when Kara had asked him about it he’d just shrugged and said that she and his Mom had an agreement that whenever they needed a little space, a little time alone, they just had to let the other know to keep their distance for a little while.

Kara doesn’t have his patience.

She wishes she did, because she’s been finding it hard to concentrate all day, her eyes constantly straying to take in Cat’s profile (whenever she was behind her desk, anyway – she’d slipped out onto her balcony more than once, and Kara’s pretty sure she’s knocking back a scotch every time she does), her boss tearing through her bowl of M&M’s at an alarming rate as her eyes scan across the computer screen in-front of her.

Sometimes Cat is watching her right back, though whenever their eyes meet Cat’s always stray to Carter, instead, before she blinks and looks away, and Kara’s almost craving a yell of ‘Kiera!’ just so that she can get closer to Cat and check that she’s actually okay.

When she hears the same set of heels that had disappeared into Cat’s office begin to head her way, Kara doesn’t raise her head; instead she keeps her eyes focused on the email she’s writing, and doesn’t even flinch when Katherine clears her throat.

“Excuse me.” Kara’s kinda curious what would happen if she continued to ignore her, but she’s not willing to be yelled out in-front of the entire bullpen so she reluctantly leans her head back to see Katherine towering over her desk.

“Can I help you?” She asks, more politely than she thought was possible for her to be, considering how much she’s come to despise this woman who’s looking down at her with thinly-veiled disdain.

“I’d like a coffee.”

“There’s a coffee machine in the break room, or there’s a coffee shop down the street,” Kara replies dismissively, turning back to focus on her email – she flinches when Katherine reaches out and tips the screen of her laptop down and out of her view, her jaw clenching as she struggles not to snap out an angry response.

“I’d like _you_ to get me a coffee,” Katherine amends, a dangerous look in her eye, and Kara wonders how much Cat has suffered, growing up with this woman as a mother, thinks that it’s a miracle that she’s grown to be who she has, so strong and successful, because Kara thinks that had their positions been reversed, she would have crumbled beneath Katherine’s iron will.

“I don’t work for you,” Kara points out, wondering how much trouble she’ll be in if she yanks Katherine’s hand away from her laptop. “And I have _actual_ things to be doing, so I’m afraid you’re just going to have to get it yourself.”

They’re garnering some attention, now, several faces looking over at them with curiosity at the open hostility between the two women, locked in a battle of wills as they both glare at the other.

“No, but you do work for my daughter.” Kara doesn’t like the calculated look that crosses Katherine’s face. “The daughter whose bed you woke up in this morning.” She keeps her voice low, and Kara is relieved, and it must show on her face. “And I’m assuming that neither of you want that information to be public knowledge – it’d be _quite_ the office scandal.” Kara’s eyes flash, her hand gripping her mouse so hard that she feels the plastic begin to crack beneath her fingertips, and she has to take a deep breath and unclench her fingers, curling her hands into fists in her lap, instead. She knows it’s futile to refute Katherine’s claims – it certainly hadn’t _looked_ innocent, with Kara coming from the direction of Cat’s bedroom with messy hair, and she knows that any denial will fall on deaf ears.

“What do you want?” Kara hisses, between clenched teeth, and Katherine just smiles a slow, wide smile that makes Kara want to tear her apart.

“Coffee.” She enunciates each syllable clearly, as though she’s talking to an idiot. “Considering how awful you are at listening and so therefore also presumably your job in general, you must be good in bed for Kitty to keep you around.” Kara sees red, shooting up out of her chair so quickly that Katherine’s eyes widen in surprise as she takes a step back, and it’s only Winn’s wide-eyed face and shaking head that appears over Katherine’s shoulder that stops her from doing something really, really stupid.

“How do you take your coffee?” Kara manages to say after biting back the hundred things she wants to spit in Katherine’s face, her breath coming in short, shallow bursts as she tries desperately to calm herself down.

“Black. Two sugars.” She turns on her heels and stalks away, and Kara’s teeth are clenched together so tightly that she thinks it’s a wonder that her jaw doesn’t shatter. She makes her way to the break room and reaches for a mug with shaking hands, stabs at the buttons on the coffee machine hard enough for her to fear that she’s broken it before it whirs into life, and she bows her head and takes deep breaths as she waits for it to finish, telling herself that Katherine won’t be around for long, and already counting the hours until she sees the back of her.

She’s perched on one of Cat’s couches when Kara returns to the bullpen, coffee in hand (she’d been tempted not to make it to Katherine’s specifications just to piss her off, but she decides that if she makes it right then she can just shove it into her hands before walking away – she knows it’s wrong, for a part of her to be praying for some sort of disaster that calls for Supergirl’s help in that moment but god, she really needs to get out of this office and away from _her_ ), placing it on the glass table before she turns to walk away.

“Wait,” Katherine’s voice stops her in her tracks, and Kara’s eyes slide shut and she counts to ten before she turns back around. “I’d like a word.” Kara shuts the door to the office with the heel of her boot, because she’s sure that whatever comes out of Katherine’s mouth next, she doesn’t want the entire bullpen hearing it.

“Yes?” She prompts when Katherine pauses to take a sip of her coffee, looking almost disappointed that it’s as she requested.

“What do you expect to get from my daughter?” Katherine asks as she sets the mug down, shrewd eyes watching Kara carefully.

“I don’t want anything from her.” Katherine lets out a derisive little chuckle that sets Kara’s teeth on edge.

“That’s a _lie_.” She pushes herself to her feet in one lithe moment, but Kara doesn’t retreat even as Katherine rounds on her with angry eyes. “You’re what, barely twenty one years old?” Kara opens her mouth to reply, but Katherine steamrolls right over her. “Do you know how old my daughter is? Fifty. Yesterday was her fiftieth birthday and there is no conceivable way for me to believe that someone who looks like _you_ would want someone near thirty years her elder, so I ask you again, what do you want from her? A promotion? An easier life from sleeping with the boss? Or is it perhaps the scandal you want, hm? The attention garnered from a sexual harassment suit? Or is it just the money?”

“I don’t want _anything_ from her,” Kara repeats quietly. There’s more she could say – that she wants Cat because of who she is, age be damned. She wants the woman who loves her son so fiercely that she would move heaven and earth for him if she needed to, she wants the woman who will let nothing stand in her way, who has built up her company from nothing, climbed to the top in a business world that was against her from the very start. She wants the woman who looks at her with soft eyes and a gentle smile, the woman who has shown such a desire to protect her, the woman who had come to mean so much to her over the past few years.

In a way, she is lying to Katherine, because she _does_ want something from Cat. She wants all of her, she wants everything that Cat is willing to give her, she wants _more_ than that, she wants to know every single part of her, and have Cat know every single thing about her in return.

She wants Cat Grant, and nothing else.

“You love her,” Katherine says then, seeing something in Kara’s eye, and then she’s laughing again, the sound making Kara’s skin crawl. “Foolish little girl.” Kara’s jaw clenches, but she’s decided that she has nothing to say to her, not anymore, she will stand here and she will let Katherine get it all out but she won’t give her the gratification of responding. “She’ll grow bored of you.” Katherine advances until there’s barely an inch of space between them, but Kara doesn’t budge, just sets her jaw and tilts her head so that they’re eye to eye. “What can you possibly offer her, aside from what she’s already getting? Do you think that she’ll give up this job, her reputation, for _you_? Do you think you’ll ever be anything other than her dirty little secret, the great sex she gets with the young, perky assistant that reminds her what it’s like to be young? She doesn’t give a flying fuck about you, my dear. She’ll drop you the second anyone starts to suggest she’s sleeping with the help, and you’re a fool if you ever think that she can love you in return.”

Kara tries to be careful, to keep her face carefully blank, but Katherine’s words start to chip at the wall she’d thrown up to protect herself when she’d walked into this room, because they reek of the truth and Kara can’t help but wonder if she is being a fool, after all.

Because what _can_ she offer Cat? She can’t offer her anything, because she’s Cat Grant and Kara… Kara is Kara Danvers, boring human by day and superhero by night, and she’s clumsy and naïve and nervous and awkward and everything that Cat is not, and why on earth would Cat ever want her, anyway?

Cat could have anyone she wanted, and there was no way that Kara would ever be the top of that list.

“Mother!” Kara’s thoughts had been swirling so dangerously and so quickly that she hadn’t even heard the sound of Cat’s office door opening behind them, flinches at the sound of Cat’s stern voice. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you, Kitty, I felt terribly about the way we left things this morning - ”

“Yes, well, I do not.” Cat stalks forwards until she’s walking past them, her hands on her hips as she turns and leans back against her desk – Kara tries to school her expression into something neutral, but judging from the look of concern that flashes over Cat’s face when their eyes meet, she mustn’t be very convincing. “Get out, mother,” she says with a dismissive wave of her hand, eyes still on Kara’s face. “I meant what I said this morning – you coming out here was a mistake, and I never should have agreed to it.”

“Kitty,” Katherine admonishes, and Kara begins to subtly back her way out of the office, because she’s sure that there’s about to be another argument and she does _not_ want to be witness to it. “Can we not just - ”

“ _No_ ,” Cat cuts her off, so much fury snapped in that single word. “Get. Out. Not you, Kiera,” she adds, noticing Kara’s attempt to retreat. “You stay.”

“Careful, Kitty. People will start to talk.”

“Oh, are you still here?” Cat asks, with a dismissive sniff. “Tell me, Kiera, am I imagining things, or have I told my mother to leave twice now?”

“N-no, Miss Grant, you’re not imagining things.”

“I didn’t think so. And yet, she’s still here. Why do you think that is?”

“Maybe she has a problem with being told what to do.” Kara raises her chin, defiant even though she’s still shaken, to meet Katherine’s furious gaze. “Or maybe she doesn’t listen, which is ironic considering that’s what she was yelling at me for not ten minutes ago.”

“Only I get to yell at my assistant, mother.” Cat’s eyes flash, her jaw tightly clenched. “You know where the door is; it would be excellent if you could use it.”

“By next month she won’t even remember your name,” Katherine hisses before she brushes past Kara and stomps away, and it’s only when she’s gone, the glass door rattling loudly in its frame as she slams it behind her, that Kara lets out a deep breath that she hadn’t realised she’d been holding, almost sagging with the relief of Katherine’s departure.

“Are you alright, Kara?” Cat asks, voice uncharacteristically gentle, as is the frown of concern that sits between her brows.

“I’m fine, Miss Grant.” Her hands are shaking, and she can’t stand that look on Cat’s face, can’t stand to be in here, in this room with its glass walls – she feels like she can’t breathe, and she wonders if this is what a panic attack might feel like. “But if you don’t mind, I have work to do, so I’ll just… be going.”

“Kara.” Cat’s voice stops her before she can move, and the soft way Cat says her name makes her heart clench in her chest. “What did she say to you?”

She wants to laugh, because there’s no way she can say any of it aloud, not without admitting the way she feels about Cat. Because the comments alone are harmless, especially considering the fact that there’s nothing actually going on between them.

But god, she _wants_ there to be something. She wants there to be something so badly that sometimes she finds it hard to breathe when they’re alone together like this, when Cat is looking at with such an intense gaze, and she wants to crumble beneath the weight of it, wants to fall and collapse into Cat’s arms and have her murmur that everything’s going to be okay.

But she won’t, and she _can’t_ , because for all her faults (and god, there are a lot of them), Katherine had spoken the truth. Kara has nothing to offer Cat, nothing except a lifetime of danger and secrecy, nothing that would be worthwhile, even if Cat wanted to try. And she can’t help but think that she’s been stupid, to believe that Cat would ever want to. Maybe she was attracted to Kara, maybe the lingering glances she’d caught being thrown her way _did_ mean something, but that was all it would ever be.

That was all it _could_ ever be, and she needs to start reminding herself of that whenever she begins to think anything otherwise.

“Nothing that wasn’t true,” is what she says to Cat, before she turns on her heel and walks away, returning to her desk and willing away the tears that threaten to fall when she catches a glimpse of Cat’s crestfallen face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carter has a plan to fix it, don't worry.
> 
> Full credit to residentgeekmonkey on tumblr for the superboner line. Still not completely over it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kara tries (and fails) to keep her distance and her secrets, and Carter puts the next stage of his plan into full effect.

After that, Kara tries to keep her distance.

She’s still the perfect employee (or as perfect as she can be, when she disappears several times a day), but she makes sure that her and Cat’s relationship remains professional, and doesn’t bleed over into their personal lives.

She sees Carter at the office, because he spends his days with Cat whilst they wait for him to be transferred to his new school, but she refuses any invitation that he offers her to come over after her working day is done. Sometimes they’ll spend their lunch hours together, hunched over a sketchbook where Kara teaches him to draw, the collection of paints that she has hidden in the top drawer of her desk getting used more than ever before.

He picks it up quickly, and the first time he proudly presents his mother with a landscape they’d drawn and painted together Kara swears that she sees tears shining in her eyes, through the glass walls, before they’re hastily blinked away.

He has a real talent, and she tells both him and Cat that regularly. Cat had tentatively asked her one night when most of the office had gone home and Carter had been sent away with the nanny for the evening, where she bought her painting supplies so that she could get Carter some of his own, and Kara had said she’d take him one day, if she wanted.

That same night, Cat had asked her another question. It was late and she was three glasses of bourbon in as they worked quietly beside one another on one of Cat’s couches to put the finishing touches to their next issue, and Cat had paused as she’d gulped down the remaining amber liquid in her glass, and looked across at Kara with dark, unreadable eyes that had held her captivated in their grasp.

“Have I done something wrong?” She’d asked, voice quiet and vulnerable in the relative silence of her office, and Kara had been unable to answer for a long moment, caught in her gaze, her throat tight and pulse beating quickly in her neck.

“N-no.”

“No?” She’d slid closer, until their knees were brushing, and Kara felt like electricity was sparking wherever their bare skin touched. She could smell the alcohol on Cat’s breath, wondered what it would taste like on her tongue, and had swallowed thickly, unable to tear herself away. “Then why have you been so… distant?”

“I-I wasn’t aware that I had been, Miss Grant, and if I’ve given you that impression - ”

“You know very well what impression you’ve given me, Kiera,” Cat interrupts, seeing easily through the lie. “But what I want to know is _why_? What did my mother say to you? You’ve been acting strangely ever since that day, and whatever she said, Kara, it’s not - ”

“She didn’t say anything untoward, Miss Grant.” Kara had been praying that Cat didn’t push, because she was so close, and leaning closer with every passing second, and Kara had known that she wouldn’t have the self-restraint to move away.

It would have been so easy, to dip forward and press their lips together, to drown her fears and her insecurities and her worries in the hot press of Cat’s mouth against her own, but she’d known that that would have been a mistake, one that she would have never been able to take back.

“I very much doubt that,” Cat had muttered darkly, her eyes watching Kara closely. “She said something to you that’s changed your opinion of me, and I don’t want to hear your denials,” Cat had added when Kara’s mouth had opened to protest, “so you can leave.”

“L-leave?”

“Yes.” Cat had leaned away and glanced back at the paperwork in her lap, dismissing Kara with a wave of her hand. “Get out. I have little patience or time for liars, Kiera – I do hope that your attitude improves over the weekend.”

Kara had slunk away when Cat hadn’t raised her head again, and spent her evening chasing an alien across National City – she’d pummelled him a bit more aggressively than was strictly necessary, judging from the worried looks Alex had been shooting her in the ride over to the DEO headquarters afterwards, but Kara had been unable to care.

On the following Monday, she floats onto Cat’s balcony in full Supergirl regalia, ready to escort Carter to his first day at his new school. Cat is standing in her bedroom, bent in-front of her vanity as she runs a brush through her hair, and she jumps when Kara wraps her knuckles lightly against the glass.

“Supergirl,” she answers when she pulls the door open and ushers Kara inside. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“You knew I was coming, Miss Grant,” she points out, trying not to let her eyes wander as she stands in Cat’s room, trying not to take in the sight of the rumpled sheets that lie on her bed, terrified that they’ll feature in her dreams tonight – she doesn’t need any further fuel added to the fire that was her imagination when it came to Cat Grant.

“Yes, well, to be honest I expected you to use the front door.”

“Oh.” The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. “I thought this would be a little less conspicuous.”

“You’re about to fly my son downtown, Supergirl,” Cat points out, folding her arms across her chest. Her eyes are shrewd and looking at her closely, and Kara has to fight the urge not to fidget beneath the weight of that gaze, terrified that Cat will see through her.

It’s the first time since Cat had accused her of being Supergirl that Cat’s been face to face with Kara like this. She’s been careful to keep her distance, especially with Cat dropping not-so-subtle hints that she still suspected her assistant had a secret identity, and she thinks, as Cat’s gaze never wavers, that that has been a wise decision.

“You’ll be careful not to drop him, won’t you?” Kara can tell that it’s supposed to be sarcastic, but there’s too much worry lacing the words for it to come off as convincing, and Kara remembers the look of terror on Cat’s face that night where they’d had their first interview together, as Kara had lifted her car into the air.

“He’s in safe hands, Miss Grant,” Kara promises. “I swear.”

“He’s out here, if you’d like to get reacquainted. He’s been looking forward to seeing you again – I’ve scarcely heard anything else all week.” Kara can believe that – she’s heard the name ‘Supergirl’ more times than she can count over the past few days.

Carter is waiting on the couch in the living room when they emerge from the hall, and his eyes light up in excitement when he sees Kara, clambering to his feet and looking like he can’t decide whether or not he wants to hug her.

“Supergirl!” He settles for rocking back on his heels, instead, and Kara smiles softly as she takes in the happy expression on his face – he doesn’t look nervous at all, though Kara knows that he’s been dreading this day and his new start all week. “You came.”

“Of course I came, Carter,” she replies warmly, hyper-aware of Cat examining her every move, and trying not to act too familiar. “I’m happy to help out a friend.”

“I’m a friend?” He asks, wide-eyed, and when Kara nods the grin that lights up his face is almost as bright as the sun.

“Have you got all your things ready, Carter?” Cat asks, and Kara doesn’t need to look at her to know that all of the worry that is absent from Carter will be written clearly across Cat’s face – she can feel the tension in her shoulders, rigidly set, and tells herself to be sure that she gives Cat an extra dose of Lexapro to get her through the day.

“Mhm,” he nods so vehemently that his curls bounce, and Kara smiles.

“Okay, then.” Cat steps forward, resting her hands on Carter’s shoulders and squeezing gently. “You have a good day, sweetheart. I’ve told the driver to bring you back to the office afterwards so you can tell me all about it.”

“Okay, Mom.” He wraps his arms around her waist in a quick hug, and Kara watches the way Cat’s jaw clenches tightly as she tries not to let any tears fall. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She brushes a kiss against the top of his head before stepping back, and then Carter bounds over to Kara’s side.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah!” Kara laughs at his enthusiasm and lets him lead her back through the house and onto Cat’s balcony. She makes sure that his backpack is tightly secured before she guides his arms around her neck and slides her own around his waist, Cat’s anxious eyes on them as Kara pushes them gently off the ground and steers them in the direction of Carter’s new school.

Carter peers over her shoulder as they fly, his delighted laughter echoing in her ears. It makes her giddy, and she’s grinning from ear to ear by the time she drops them out of the sky, landing with her knees bent outside of New Holly Prep school to gasps of shock and awe. Carter flings his arms around her in one last hug and murmurs ‘thank you’ into her ear before skipping off towards the reception, and Kara watches him go with a soft smile before taking off and heading for home, where she changes quickly and makes her way to CatCo, stopping at Noonan’s on the way to pick up Cat’s latte.

“Your coffee, Miss Grant,” she murmurs as she places it on Cat’s desk, and Cat scrutinises her carefully for one long moment before she takes it between her fingers and lifts it to her lips. Kara sets down two Lexapro pills, and Cat arches an eyebrow at her. “I know you must be worried about Carter,” she explains, and Cat hums quietly as she washes them both down in one gulp with a sip of scalding coffee. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Seeing as you were late this morning,” she pauses, arches her eyebrow even higher, as though daring Kara to defend herself or offer a reason for her tardiness – she stays silent, and Cat rolls her eyes before continuing. “You can take these,” she thrusts their latest fashion spread towards her, “back down to editing, they need retouching. Make sure they do it properly, and bring them to me when they’re done.”

“Yes, Miss Grant.”

Kara’s pretty sure, as she stands and waits for the new spreads to be finished (after a ten minute argument with the manager who insists that they’re _fine_ , but this is Cat Grant and nothing less than perfect is acceptable), leaning her shoulder back against the wall and smothering a yawn, that Cat is punishing her.

Her certainty only grows as the day wears on and Cat keeps giving her the most tedious tasks she can think of (Kara spends at least an hour and a half re-organising the supply closet to Cat’s specifications), and making endless phonecalls that she’s absolutely positive aren’t even remotely necessary.

But she takes it all on the chin, because she knows Cat is pissed and hurt that Kara’s keeping something from her and keeping her distance, and she thinks that Cat will tire of it, eventually. It’s still a relief when Carter rushes through the CatCo doors later that afternoon, bounding over to her desk with bright eyes and an infectious smile.   

“Hey, kid,” she says as he rushes to the side of her desk, dropping his backpack down beside her chair. “How was your first day?”

“It was amazing,” he beams, and Kara feels her heart warm. “Everyone was asking me about Supergirl and how I knew her, and I didn’t even have to eat lunch alone because some kids asked me to sit with them and then they stopped asking about Supergirl and they started asking about _me_ and I think… I think I made some friends.” His smile turns shy, and Kara almost tears up at the expression on his face. “They want to come over and play Settlers of Catan – I have to go tell my Mom!”

He skips away, and Kara lets out a light chuckle as she watches him scramble inside his Mom’s office, Cat’s dour expression lightening when she sees the look on her son’s face. She watches them for a long moment, as Carter tells her all about his day, watches the way Cat’s eyes soften (she swears for one second they glisten with tears), a rare genuine smile on her face as she listens intently to the stories he’s telling her.

When Kara ventures into Cat’s office later it’s to find only Carter scribbling away in a notebook, working on his homework, and he nods towards the open balcony door when he notices Kara’s confused stare. She slips outside to find Cat standing against the railing, arms draped over the ledge and looking at her city.

“I have the photos you asked for, Miss Grant.”

“You can leave them on my desk,” she dismisses without even turning around, and Kara nods and goes to take a step back through the door before Cat’s voice stops her in her tracks. “Wait, Kara, I… I want to thank you.” She turns around then, a faraway look in her eyes as she leans back against the railing, arms draped across it on either side of her.

“For… the photos?” She asks, crease forming between her brows as she shuffles said photos in her hands. “I was just… doing what you asked.”

“No, not for the photos,” Cat says with an impatient roll of her eyes. “For what you did for Carter this morning.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t do anything… th-that was Supergirl, not _me_ , I was just - ”

“I meant for having the idea in the first place,” Cat interrupts her desperate stuttering, an amused smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. “Though from _that_ response, I am wondering what you thought I meant. And what you have to hide – do you know that you’re a terrible liar, Kiera?”

“Why is it,” Kara tries to change the subject, because she’s pretty sure, from the determined look on Cat’s face, that she isn’t going to let the Supergirl thing go anytime soon. “That you still call me that, even though we both know that you know my real name? You just used it five seconds ago.”

She’s pretty sure she knows the reason – Cat slips up when they’re alone together, sometimes, lets herself care in a way she tries not to when they’re at work. ‘Kiera’ is how she reminds Kara of what they are – boss and employee, nothing more. It’s how she reminds Kara that she doesn’t care about her enough to remember her name, except now it slips from Cat’s lips with increasing regularity, and it’s about time she brought it up.

“Why were you late this morning, _Kiera_?” Cat counters, lips curling into a sneer at the name, a challenge written in the fire of her eyes, and Kara wonders whether coming out here had been a mistake.

“I overslept,” she answers calmly, calling on her Supergirl confidence and staring Cat straight in the eye, refusing to look away and willing her to believe the lie. “It won’t happen again.”

“It’s an awfully big co-incidence though, isn’t it,” Cat continues, and Kara thinks that she’s very, very screwed because Cat has her journalist façade on, she’s like a shark who’s tasted blood in the water, and Kara is the prey she’s about to snatch between her jaws. “That the one morning you oversleep, Supergirl is flying my son to school. Just like it’s an awfully big coincidence that last week when there was that big fire at that factory that Supergirl put out, Kara Danvers was nowhere to be found, and when she _did_ return from her ‘lunch break’,” Cat draws air quotes in the air between them as she advances on Kara, “she smelled suspiciously of smoke.”

“I burnt my lunch.”

“ _Or_ ,” Cat carries on, completely ignoring her, “how about your perfectly timed absences _every_ time Supergirl appears on the news? There was the fifteen car pile-up on the highway, there was the building collapse downtown, the armed robberies, and not to mention the alien activity that Supergirl has managed to contain over the past few months, all coinciding with times where my assistant was nowhere to be found. You had me fooled for a hot second with that stunt you pulled by creating some form of body double, but not for long.”

Cat is so close now that they’re practically pressed together, and Kara can feel her breath against her lips, her breathing laboured and her voice raising with every word, and there’s a fire in her eyes that makes Kara wants to turn tail and _run_.

“For months, _months_ , Kara, I’ve gone along with your little farce of pretending that you’re nothing more than ordinary but I don’t believe it for a second. You are anything but ordinary – you are _extraordinary_ and I am sick of you denying it. I want you to look me in the eye, right now, and tell me that I’m wrong. Make me _believe_ that you’re not who I think you are. Make me believe that, if I stabbed you in the shoulder with this pen,” she produces one from the pocket of her blouse and whirls it once, dangerously, between her fingers, “it would break the skin.”

“What do you want from me?” It tears from her lips in a ragged whisper, because she knows there’s no hiding anymore – Cat has caught her, and there’s nowhere left for her to hide.

“I want the _truth_.”

“What, so you can publish the story of the century and skyrocket CatCo’s sales?” She asks, viciously, and Cat flinches, looking like she’s been slapped.

“Do you really think so little of me?” She asks, sounding wounded.

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” she admits quietly, feeling vulnerable and exposed beneath Cat’s heavy gaze.

“If I wanted to publish your identity, I would’ve done it by now,” Cat points out, and she’s still so close, close enough to touch, and there’s a part of Kara that craves to reach for her hand, to tangle their fingers together and never let go, because she’s sure that they’re at the edge of something, here, and after this, things will never be the same again. “I’ve had the evidence for months, all I had to do was write the story.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I knew it would hurt you, and that is something I have very little desire to do.”

“Even for the story of the century?”

“You’re more important to me.” She says it so softly that it’s as if she never meant to say anything at all, and Kara blinks at her for one long moment, because there is nothing more important than work to Cat aside from her son, and now apparently Kara, and it makes her heart sing. “You didn’t have to hide from me, for all this time.”

“You wanted to fire me.”

“I… was rash, when I said those things. The thought that people could be dying, people that you could save whilst you were out running errands for me… that is unforgivable.”

“Not feeling normal,” Kara replies, unable to keep the yearning out of her voice, because a normal life had been all she’s ever wanted – she’d never asked for this, to be sent to Earth while her whole planet, her whole _life_ , exploded behind her, to have powers thrust upon her that meant that she had to watch every interaction, every touch and every hug, lest she accidentally hurt someone more fragile than her. She’d never wanted any of this, but she’d gotten it, and she wouldn’t wish her powers away now that she knows the good she can do but… she thinks that, if she had the chance to go back to her childhood and erase them entirely, she just might take it. “ _That_ is what is unforgivable, Miss Grant. I can’t save people full-time, I’m not… I’m not cut out for that. It’s not what I want. I can’t save everyone and that’s okay, I don’t want to try because I think it might kill me, but I can protect as many people as I can and I _need_ this job, Miss Grant. I need to be Kara Danvers because without her I’ll… I’ll lose myself and I won’t ever be able to get myself back. I _like_ it here, I like being your assistant, I like having friends and hanging out with Carter and feeling _human_ and I… please don’t take it away from me. Please don’t turn me away.”

Cat’s expression changes from guilt-ridden to heartbroken with every word that Kara says, her voice turning pleading by the end because she couldn’t stand it if Cat fired her, told her to pack her things and never look back, knows that it would break her beyond repair.

“Kara, I… I don’t _want_ to.” She reaches up a hand to cup Kara’s cheek, wipes away a tear that Kara hadn’t even realised she’d let fall with the sweep of her thumb, and Kara wants to melt beneath the gentle touch, feels her breath catch at the weight of Cat’s hand burning against her skin. “I’m not going to.”

“You’re not?” Her voice breaks, and Cat shakes her head, still running her thumb gently across Kara’s cheekbone.

“No, you can keep your job. You can disappear during the day without trying to come up with a lame excuse for why you’re not there. If I hear Witt tell me that you’re down at the copier one more time…” Kara laughs, and Cat gives her a soft smile, dropping her hand from Kara’s face and returning it to her side – Kara feels like she’s lost a part of herself. “Promise me you won’t lie to me again.”

“I won’t,” she vows, though she thinks it might be one that she might end up breaking. “I promise.”

“Mm.” Cat takes a deep breath, before taking a step back and putting some space between the two of them. “I need you to schedule an interview for me – let me go and get the number.” She follows Cat back into her office, setting the photos down on her desk while Cat riffles through her drawers to find a post-it note that she hands to Kara with a name and number scribbled across it. “Here.”

“Kara, can you help me with my calculus when you’re done?” Carter pipes up as Kara’s halfway out of the room. “My Mom sucks at it.”

“Because I’m a journalist, not a mathematician,” Cat points out, though there’s little offence in her tone, because she _is_ terrible at anything math-related. Kara’s pretty sure she saw her do three plus two on a calculator one time.

Not that she’ll ever say that aloud, of course.

Cat had promised not to fire her for being Supergirl, but _teasing_ her was definitely a fireable offence.

“Sure, kid. If your Mom can spare me for fifteen minutes, that is.” She glances down at the problems he’s looking at over the back of the couch and scrunches her nose up. “Make that half an hour, actually.”

“Mm, I _suppose_ so.”

“Awesome, thanks, Supergirl.” Kara stares at the back of his head, wondering if he’d meant to say that or if she’d somehow misheard him, and she hears Cat let out a low chuckle behind her when she sees the look on Kara’s face.

“ _What_ did you just call me?”

“Carter knows, Kara,” Cat answers her as Carter grins down into his notebook. “He’s a very smart boy – he’s had you figured out for almost as long as I have.”

“The first time you ever looked after me,” Carter adds, glancing up at Kara with a look of mischief in his eyes, “after I’d gone to bed I snuck back to the kitchen to get a drink and you were asleep on the couch and your glasses had fallen off and you looked just like her.”

“I… that was _months_ ago.”

“Mom said that we shouldn’t tell you we knew in-case it scared you away.”

“You really are terrible at keeping secrets, dear.”

x-x-x

Cat had forbidden the celebration of any holiday in the CatCo offices many years before Kara had started working there.

She’d found out just how serious Cat was about it when, her first Christmas as Cat’s assistant, she’d put a tiny potted Christmas tree on her desk.

Cat had seized it, _burned_ it, and given her a three and a half hour lecture on why the acknowledgement of national holidays led to a drop in productivity, and Kara hadn’t dared to try again.

But of all the holidays, Cat Grant despises Valentine’s Day the most. It’s not one that Kara particularly partakes in, herself, considering she’s never had anyone to spend the day with, so it’s not like she cares about the fact that she can’t have any cards or flowers on her desk (she’s pretty sure that Winn would have gotten her some, if not for Cat’s rule, so maybe it’s not such a bad one, after all).

And it’s because of all of this that, when Kara returns to her desk after taking a Supergirl-related break and finds a huge teddy bear clutching a heart laid out on her desk, a card resting against its front and a box of her favourite chocolates beneath it, that instead of happiness, she feels a thrill of fear.

She reaches for the card with trembling fingers, and nearly faints when she sees who the card is signed from, because she knows there is no way in _hell_ that Cat Grant would _ever_ gift her with something like this and she’s one hundred percent sure that someone is playing a cruel joke on her.

“Kiera!” Cat snaps from behind her, and Kara spins, face contorting in horror as she realises that there’s a matching teddy bear monstrosity sitting on Cat’s desk, too. She rushes into Cat’s office with trembling hands, her horror deepening when she sees the card clutched in Cat’s hands, open and angled towards her, the ‘love, Kara’ clearly visible at the bottom and oh god, Cat’s actually going to kill her, and it isn’t even her _fault_. “What is the meaning of this?”

“I don’t – that’s not – it’s not – I didn’t – I didn’t _write_ that!” She manages to sputter eventually, Cat’s narrowed eyes staring her down. “I swear, Miss Grant, I didn’t, there’s a matching one on my desk,” she turns to indicate it with an erratic wave of her hand, “and it’s signed from _you_ but I know that you’d never, _ever_ do that so I really think someone’s just trying to play some kind of prank on us and I - ”

“Oh, I am going to _kill_ that boy,” Cat interrupts her with a dangerous whisper, realisation dawning on her face as she snaps the card shut and throws it onto her desk.

“Um… what boy?” Kara asks, frowning in confusion because she really has absolutely no idea what’s happening, here.

“Carter.”

“Carter?” Cat shoots her a withering glare for the echo, and Kara clamps her mouth shut, because Cat _does_ look ready to kill and Kara’s pretty sure that out of her and Carter, she’s the least likely to survive, superhero or not.

“My son,” Cat explains with an exasperated sigh as she drops into the chair behind her desk, “is under the quite frankly ridiculous impress that you and I have feelings for one another.”

“But that’s-that’s – I mean – you’re right, that _is_ ridiculous,” Kara’s heart is hammering in her chest, her hands starting to shake as she curls them into fists, lets out a peal of fake laughter that isn’t convincing anyone. “That’s just… that would _never_ happen.” Cat is watching her display with an eyebrow quirked upwards in interest, calculating expression on her face as she steeples her fingers in-front of her lips. “E-ever.”

“Yes, well,” Cat responds after a lengthy pause, eyes still scrutinising Kara carefully – she has to fight the urge not to fidget beneath the weight of that stare, because she’s terrified of giving anything away, of Cat suspecting that, at least on her behalf, Carter isn’t too far from the truth.

But then she thinks of that conversation that she’d overheard between mother and son, of the way she’d heard Cat’s quiet gasp of her name whilst she was touching herself, and she thinks that Carter may not be far from the truth all-round.

And then she remembers all the reasons why her and Cat together would be a colossal disaster, all of the things that stand in their way. All of the reasons why she wasn’t good enough for her, and why she deserved so much better.

“Carter’s coming by the office later, could you talk to him about this?” She gestures to the huge bear with a derisive wave of her hand, lip curling slightly in disgust.

“Me?”

“Yes, Kara, _you_ , do keep up.” Cat’s got her arms folded across her chest now, leaning back and looking every inch the queen they both know that she is as she regards Kara with emerald eyes. “I’ve tried to dispel the idea on multiple occasions, but it never seems to work – maybe you’ll fare better.”

“Oh, uh, I can try.” She can’t even convince herself that she doesn’t have feelings for Cat, though – there’s no way in hell she’s going to fool someone _else_ of that, especially not someone as astute as Carter is proving to be.

“Thank you. I wonder where he even got this idea in the first place.” She says that more to herself than to Kara, but it brings into her mind a vivid flashback of Carter having a hushed, whispered conversation with Lucy Lane that Kara had been suspicious about but unable to eavesdrop on because she was studiously taking notes at a meeting in Cat’s office.

“I might have some idea,” she mutters, darkly, and Cat looks at her with interest, but Kara only shakes her head. “I’ll keep an eye out for Carter.”

She doesn’t head for her desk when she leaves Cat’s office – instead she strides furiously down the hall to where Lucy’s office is situated, and finds the woman within with a phone pressed against her ear, looking extremely bored as she bounces a pen against the blank sheet of paper sitting in-front of her.

“Kara!” She exclaims when Kara whirls into her office, slamming the door loudly behind her. “Thank God, I’ve been on hold for like an hour and I’m so bore - ”

“I am going to _kill_ you,” Kara hisses, cutting her off and resting her hands on the desk, leaning over it slightly, arms shaking with anger.

“What? What are you – _oh_. I’m guessing you got the… gift?” Kara just glowers, and Lucy shifts the phone so that it’s cradled against her shoulder, holding her hands out in-front of her in surrender. “I thought I’d talked him out of it, Kara, I swear. I knew Cat would hate it, and I knew you wouldn’t take it too well, either.”

“And yet he couldn’t have done it on his own, could he?”

“So _maybe_ we were thinking of some ways to get you two idiots to just admit how you felt about one another – I didn’t think he’d actually _try_ any of them!”

“I’m going to kill you,” Kara says again, closing her eyes and letting out a long, slow sigh. “And Cat’s definitely going to kill you, if she finds out you had anything to do with this.”

“You didn’t tell her, did you?” Kara has the gratification of seeing Lucy look terrified, purses her lips for one long moment, dragging it out.

“No.” Lucy’s relief is palpable. “But I _could_. And I _will_ if you don’t stop trying to meddle. Cat and I… it’s never going to happen, Luce.”

“ _Why_? She cares about you, I think in time she could even love you, and I _know_ you feel the same way about her, so what’s the problem, Kara? What’s holding you back?”

Kara doesn’t answer her, because the list is too long – instead she just shakes her head and stalks away, leaving Lucy trapped at her desk with her phonecall and ignoring the calls after her. She returns to her desk after delicately shoving the bear into the trash (she keeps the chocolates, though, hiding them in her top drawer after eating almost a third of the box as she works), and when she hears the quiet sound of Carter’s footsteps on the office floor she raises her head, slamming her laptop closed and reaching out for his elbow as he tries to sneak past her desk and into his Mom’s office.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Kara chastises as she steers him back the way he just came. “You don’t wanna go in there just now, buddy, trust me. You and me are going for a walk, come on.”

“I’m guessing you both got the things I ordered,” Carter says as they step into the elevator, scuffing the floor with his shoe.

“Yeah, we did.” Carter bites at his bottom lip but doesn’t say anymore until they’re on the street outside, Kara walking them towards a diner down the street that she knows does really good ice cream.

“I was just trying to _help_ ,” he says as Kara’s prodding him through the front door of the diner, his bottom lip jutting out in a pout. “You and my Mom - ”

“Work together,” Kara cuts in as they slide into a booth and she pulls the menu towards her. “That’s all. And that’s all it’ll ever be.”

“But _why_? I think you like her, and I _know_ she likes you, Kara. I’ve never seen her as happy as she is around you – do you know how many assistants she’s invited to dinner, or to stay the night? None. She barely even did that when she used to date, I only ever met one of the boyfriends she had after the divorce. And she tries to hide the way she feels because she’s scared and she doesn’t want to get hurt again but,” he glances up from where he’d been staring intently at the table, “I think she deserves to be happy, don’t you? And I _know_ she’d be happy with you. I know that’s what she wants, even if she’ll never admit it.”

“Carter…” Every single word he says makes her heart ache, and if this was a simpler world, if she were only Kara Danvers and no-one else, then maybe she and Cat would be able to make it work. But it’s not that simple, she _isn’t_ just Kara and she has a whole other life that she doesn’t want Cat to ever come close to.

“Do you like my Mom?” Carter rushes out before Kara can begin to shoot him down. Kara hesitates, because it would be easier to lie but she knows that it won’t convince either one of them.

“Yes,” she sighs, eventually, after a waitress has come over and taken their orders – Kara gets the biggest ice cream sundae they do, although she’s not sure even that can make this conversation bearable.

“Then what’s the problem?” It’s the same thing Lucy had asked her, but Carter’s eyes are wide and earnest and innocent, and Kara knows that she’ll never be able to make him understand why, no matter how they feel, sometimes two people just can’t be together. “If you like her, and she likes you, then it’s simple - ”

“It’s not, Carter,” she interrupts, needing to quash the optimism she sees in his expression. “It’s the farthest thing from simple, and I don’t expect you to understand, but - ”

“I’m not a kid,” he scowls, and Kara presses her lips together to hide a smile, because in that moment he looks just like a petulant toddler about to throw a tantrum. “You can tell me the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth,” Kara replies, keeping her voice gentle. “Your Mom and I, we wouldn’t work, okay? She deserves to be with someone who’s her equal, someone who can - ”

“Who’s more equal than to my Mom than Supergirl?” Kara’s grateful that he remembers to whisper that part, though she still casts a cursory glance over her shoulder. Thankfully no-one is paying them any attention.

“And that’s another thing,” Kara continues. “I’d be putting you _and_ your Mom in danger because of who I am. Plus, it keeps me busy, and your Mom deserves someone who’s going to be there for her to come home to at the end of the day, someone who she knows will be there when she wakes up in the morning, someone she doesn’t have to worry about never coming home whenever they leave the house.”

It’s easier to tell Carter the real reasons holding her back over Lucy, because he listens quietly as he takes it all in, he doesn’t interrupt though his frown deepens with Kara’s every word. It’s actually a relief, to get it off her chest, to say aloud the thoughts that have been swirling around in her brain ever since Katherine Grant had left the CatCo offices over a week ago.

“I care about your Mom a lot,” Kara finishes quietly, glancing down at her hands as she fiddles with her fingers. “A lot more than I’ve ever cared about anyone else before, but I… I’m not good enough for her.” She sees Carter’s mouth open to deny it, but Kara shakes her head before he can speak. “I’m not. And that’s okay. It’s okay if nothing ever happens between us. Because I’m still going to be around, I’m still gonna come to dinner and game nights and I’ll still teach you how to paint and I’ll still be _there_ , Carter. Nothing’s going to change.”

“What if I want it to change?” He asks, and when Kara looks up she sees that his bottom lip is trembling slightly, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “What if I want… what if I want a family?”

“Oh, sweetheart.” She shuffles around the side of their table so that she can slide into the booth beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of his head. She knows this want, this desire, because once upon a time, it had been all she’d ever wanted. It hadn’t been easy to adjust to life with the Danvers, Alex too distant at first, Eliza and Jerimiah too overbearing, but eventually she’d stopped wishing that she’d never been sent to earth and realised that she could have a family here, too. “You _do_ have a family. You have your Mom and your Dad, and… and you have me. I’m not going anywhere.”

x-x-x

“I cannot _believe_ you have a super-sized crush on your boss and I didn’t even realise it until just now.” Kara groans at Alex’s words, dropping her head against the back of the couch and closing her eyes, wondering if she can will her sister away using nothing but the power of her mind. “Like - ” Apparently not. “It’s all so _obvious_? Why you’ve worked there for so long, even though she treats you like shit. Why you were so upset when you thought she was going to fire you. Why you’ve been AWOL a couple of nights and refused to tell me where you were. God, how did I not see this sooner?”

“Maybe because I’m really good at keeping secrets?” Alex snorts into her wine glass, and Kara scowls.

“Really, Kara? It took like three days for everyone you knew to know you were Supergirl.”

“Hey!” She pouts, and Alex only rolls her eyes. “That is not true. Cat didn’t figure it out until - ”

“Wait a minute,” Alex interrupts, sitting up straight and eyes widening in alarm. “Cat Grant _knows_?”

Shit.

“Oh, um,” Kara fiddles with the glasses that she no longer needs to have on her face. “Did I not tell you that already?” She knows perfectly well that she hadn’t – Alex would kill her, and then probably Cat, too. At the very least she’d threaten her, and that is _so_ not something Kara needs in her life right now.

“ _No._ How long?”

“Well… she _says_ she’s known for months - ”

“Months, Kara?!” Alex is exasperated, and Kara knows that there’s worry in her eyes. “God, I thought you were being careful?”

“I _am_! But she’s Cat Grant, she’s the queen of all media – she was going to figure out that her assistant was the superhero she branded eventually.”

“And does Cat Grant want Kara Danvers or Supergirl?” She’d told Alex everything – her sister had always been her rock, her safe place, the only other person she trusted to help her sift through her swirling thoughts whenever something’s wrong. It’d been killing her, keeping this whole thing quiet, and when Alex had appeared for their regular TV and pizza night the whole miserable tale had come spilling out of her.

“Both, I think,” she shrugs, because it’s not like she _knows_. “From what Carter said, it sounded like it was Kara Danvers first.”

“You know,” Alex says after a few moments pause, a considering look on her face as she taps her chin and eyes Kara curiously, “it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if you went on a date with her.”

“ _What_?” Kara’s mouth slides open in shock, because she had firmly expected Alex to tell her to snap out of this and stay the hell away from Cat – to be her voice of reason, not her Lucy 2.0. “You want Supergirl to start dating the queen of all media?”

“No,” Alex amends, with a small shake of her head. “I want my _sister_ to start dating the queen of all media. I mean, yeah, sure I’d prefer it if you had feelings for someone a little less…” She trails off, searching for the right word, “dangerous,” she decides, after Kara shoots her a warning look. “But… if you like her and she likes you then,” Alex shrugs. “I say go for it. You’re allowed to feel normal, Kara.”

“But I’m _not_ normal.”

“No, you’re not,” Alex agrees. “But that doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of happiness or a relationship or love. Do you want to be alone forever, Kara? Let Cat slip through your fingers? Watch her fall in love with someone else six months down the line because you were too scared to make a move?”

Kara’s hands curl into fists at the thought of that, of seeing her every day and knowing that the smile on her face had been put there by someone who isn’t _her_. Scheduling date nights and dinners for Cat and her new squeeze, watching both Cat and Carter forgetting all about her as they both fell in love with someone new.

“She’d be safer.” That’s what she keeps telling herself, that’s why she hasn’t turned up at Cat’s door, begging for a chance, because she can’t stand the thought of it ending badly. Yes, it’d be so, so hard to keep her distance but god, it’d be better than knowing what it felt like to have Cat in her arms only for Kara to lose her.

“You’re allowed to be happy,” Alex reminds her, gently, and Kara clenches her jaw and looks hastily away as she feels tears prickle in the corner of her eyes in response to her sister’s earnest expression.

“Can we please talk about something else?” She asks, attention focused on the long-forgotten Game of Thrones episode, and Alex sighs quietly before humming a quiet agreement.

Kara curls her legs beneath her as she hoists a bowl of popcorn into her lap, handing her sister the blanket draped over the back of her couch when she notices her shivering out of the corner of her eye. She accepts it with a grateful smile, and Kara’s glad, not for the first time, that she’s unaffected by the outside temperature – she’s wearing only tiny shorts and a thin tank top, her most comfortable clothes.

She frowns when she hears a knock at the door a few moments later, because she isn’t expecting anyone – they’d demolished the pizza they’d ordered hours ago. She tips her glasses up and uses her x-ray vision on the door, and nearly drops popcorn all over the floor as she sees who’s on the other side.

“Oh my god.”

“What?” Alex is immediately alert by her side, half on her feet and looking ready for a fight, hand automatically shooting to her belt though there’s no gun strapped to her waist. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s… it’s Cat,” she hisses, wondering if she can get away with pretending that no-one’s home, but then Cat knocks again and Alex shoves at her shoulder until Kara’s clambering to her feet. “Alright, alright, I’m _going_.”

She barely has the door opened before Cat is striding into her apartment with sure, quick steps in her five inch heels, whirling the second she’s passed Kara and jabbing a finger at her chest.

“What the _hell_ did you tell my son?” She hisses, anger swirling in her eyes as well as her tone, her eyebrows drawn into a fierce glare that leaves Kara speechless for a long moment, because she thought she’d taken _care_ of this?

“I-I didn’t - ”

“No, Kara, you _didn’t_ ,” Cat interrupts her, taking a furious step forward that actually has Kara taking one back, despite the fact that Cat is tiny and also very much breakable. “I told you to take care of it and now, instead of accepting the fact that you and I are never going to happen, he seems to be even more determined to _make_ it happen, so I need you to - ”

“Um, I’m going to go,” Alex pipes up from over Cat’s shoulder, looking about as mortified as Kara feels – Cat whirls around at the sound of Alex’s voice, surprised, mouth opening and closing a few times as she struggles to find words. “Cause you look like you have your hands full, sis. Remember what I said,” she says as she’s sliding past Kara and out of the front door, shooting her a meaningful look that has Kara grimacing in return.

“Look, Cat, I - ”

“No.” She cuts Kara off with a threatening wave of her finger. “ _No_. I don’t _want_ to hear you explain yourself. I want to know what the _hell_ you said to him, Kara, because - ”

“I told him that I wasn’t good enough for you,” she says, quietly, because she’s _tired_ – she’s tired of lying, she’s tired of hiding (and she’s tired of hearing Cat yell at her for something that’s not her fault). “I told him that yeah, I do have feelings for you,” she hears Cat’s sharp intake of breath and carries on speaking, her voice trembling. “But that nothing would ever happen because you deserve better than me. _That_ was what your Mom said to me, Cat.” She watches the way Cat’s eyes widen, lip curling into a snarl at the mention of her mother. “And she was right.”

“You _idiot_ ,” Cat breathes, and then there’s a tiny fist hitting Kara square in the centre of the chest and she’s pretty sure that it did Cat a lot more damage than it did her, but that doesn’t stop her from doing it again. “You idiot _._ ” She catches Cat’s wrist in her hand to stop her hitting Kara a third time and hurting herself, feeling the frantic beat of her pulse beneath the press of her fingertips. “ _Idiot_.”

“Fun as it is to be insulted,” Kara murmurs, raising an eyebrow as she absentmindedly runs her thumb across the delicate skin of Cat’s wrist. “Is there any particular reason for it, this time?”

“How can you believe a word that my mother says?” Cat asks, voice low and demanding. “How can you possibly say that you don’t deserve me? That you’re not _good_ enough for me? You’re selfless and kind and noble and generous and _beautiful_ and all of the things that I am not and you… you think that you’re not good enough for _me_? God, Kara, that couldn’t be less true. If anything, _I_ am not good enough for _you_.”

“No.” Kara shakes her head so violently that her glasses almost fly off her nose. “No, that’s not true.”

“Oh, but it is.” Cat’s free hand comes up to cradle the side of her face, her fingers warm and shaking against Kara’s cheek. “You’re _Supergirl_.” The gentle reverence with which Cat says the name makes her lip curl. “How on earth could you never be enough for me?”

“I’m not Supergirl when I’m around you,” Kara insists, voice quiet as she dips her head to rest her forehead against Cat’s, letting her eyes flutter closed as she breathes her in. “I meant what I said to you, all that time ago. You make me feel _normal_ , Cat. You keep me grounded, you’re my tether, you’re my sanity, you’re my… my _everything_ , you mean more to me than you’ll ever now and I don’t… I don’t want to ruin that. I don’t want to ruin _you_. I’m dangerous, Cat, and you need to know that. You should stay away from me.”

“Oh, Kara,” Cat murmurs with a short laugh, devoid of any humour. “If the past few months have taught me anything, it’s that I couldn’t stay away from you if I tried.” Her hand drops to Kara’s neck, curls around the back of it and plays with soft strands of blonde hair in a way that has Kara’s breath catching. “And I’m well aware of how dangerous you are, though probably not for the same reasons you think.”

“People could use you to get to me.”

“Let them try.” Kara shakes her head, but she’s struck dumb when Cat leans up on her tiptoes to press their lips together. It’s brief and chaste and anything but innocent, and Kara lets out a sharp gasp against Cat’s mouth. “I’m tired of denying this, Kara. Tired of gulping down two fingers of bourbon whenever you’re wearing a particularly tight shirt or skirt of anything that shows of those arms or those collarbones or those legs, tired of pretending that it doesn’t kill me when we’re alone together at the office, when you’re close enough to touch but having to restrain myself because you’re my _assistant_ and god, it’s wrong. I shouldn’t feel this way, you’re almost half my age but I… I can’t stop _thinking_ about you. And I should’ve fired you the second I started feeling this way but… you make it so hard to think, you make me _weak_ and you wormed your way into my heart and I think you might just be there to stay. And it’s you who should be walking away, Kara, because I’m old and I’m bitter and you’re far too good for me, but god, I don’t want you to. I don’t know if I could stand it.”

She’s still got one hand wrapped around Kara’s neck, fingertips digging into her skin, and the palm of her other hand is laid flat against Kara’s chest, feeling the frantic pounding of her heart. It’s everything she’s ever wanted to hear Cat say and everything that she never expected to hear, and she doesn’t know what to _do_.

Because she should, she _should_ walk away, spare Cat from any of the pain that will surely befall her in they take this any further. Because she has enemies, a whole list of them: Maxell Lord and her aunt Astra and Non and their alien army, and who knows how many others were out there that wanted her gone.

But Cat makes her weak, Cat makes her want to forget about all of that, Cat makes her want to _try_. For Cat she can be careful to ensure her life as Kara Danvers and her life as Supergirl stay separate, and it’ll be difficult and maybe impossible in the long run but god, she thinks that it’ll be worth it if she gets to feel Cat’s lips against hers even just one more time.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she breathes against Cat’s mouth before she’s kissing her again, sliding her hand from Cat’s wrist and down until it’s curling around her shoulder, her other finding Cat’s waist and spinning them around so that Cat’s pressed against her kitchen table.

Cat moans against her lips, and Kara feels heat flood through her at the sound wants to hear it again and again (wants to see what _other_ noises she can drag from between Cat’s lips). Cat’s tongue runs across her bottom lip and Kara’s mouth opens and when she sucks on Cat’s tongue she’s rewarded with a hand clenching tightly in her hair.

It’s easy for her to slide her hands down to Cat’s thighs and lift her onto the table, stepping between her legs as they wrap around her waist. Cat’s heels dig into the small of her back, sharp points keeping her grounded, and Kara can barely believe what she’s doing as she lets her hands rest on Cat’s inner thighs, the skin burning beneath her touch.

She wants to feel every inch of Cat against her, wants to explore the canvas of her body with lips and teeth and tongue until she’s begging beneath her. She thinks though, from the demanding way that Cat tugs her head back and presses a line of bites and kisses down the side of her neck, that Cat might have other ideas for how their night is going to go.

God, not that she’s complaining. She’s doing anything _other_ than complaining as Cat sucks at her pulse point as though she’s determined to leave a mark despite her efforts being completely futile, but Kara’s not about to tell her that.

Kara’s hands slide higher on Cat’s thighs, the muscles jumping beneath her fingertips, and when she drags her nails down from near Cat’s hip to her knee she lets out a tiny whimper against Kara’s neck, hips arching into the touch.

“ _Harder_ ,” Cat demands in her ear, voice low and rough and wanting, and Kara swallows thickly and repeats the motion, digging in hard enough for her to leave a thin line of red in her wake, Cat moaning into her ear.

When Cat kisses her again it’s wet and messy and makes her head spin, and she’s breathless by the time their lips part, nose skimming across Cat’s jaw and placing a light kiss just below her ear. Cat hums quietly and Kara places another on the side of her neck, grazing her skin with her teeth when a warm hand worms its way beneath her tank top and presses against her back.

Cat’s head tilts, her other hand still fisted tightly in Kara’s hair, completely in control even though she could so easily be at Kara’s mercy, and Kara drags a long trail with her teeth down the side of Cat’s neck, biting roughly at the juncture where it meets her shoulder, and Cat’s gasp echoes beautifully in her ears.

Cat starts to inch her way up the inside of Kara’s shirt, and Kara forgets how to breathe at the first, testing touch of Cat’s hand cupping one of her breasts. It’s both too much and not enough at the same time, and she breathes out a relieved groan when sure fingers slip beneath the cup of her bra and trap a nipple between them, teasing it into a hardened peak and nearly making Kara’s knees buckle.

She can feel the heat of Cat’s sex, so tantalisingly close to where her hands still rest, and she can’t resist sliding them higher, Cat’s breath catching as Kara’s thumbs brush against the outside of rough lace, and then the hand at her chest is flattening against her and pushing her slightly away.

“We should – we should stop,” Cat says in a breathless voice that trembles, a world away from her usually calm and composed self, and Kara can barely believe that _she_ is responsible for that, feels a slight burst of pride even as she’s frowning, snatching her hands from under Cat’s skirt quickly.

“Did I… Did I do something wrong?” She goes to move away, but Cat’s legs flex around her waist and keep her close.

“No, sweetheart, no, but… we’ve said a lot of things tonight, and I think we should both have time to process them before we jump into something that we regret.” Logically, Kara knows that Cat is speaking sense – that they should take a step back and really think about what they both wanted before jumping into bed together, but there’s an insistent ache between her thighs that is screaming at her that waiting is a stupid idea.

“Okay,” she agrees, and Cat shoots her a small smile, tugging her forward to press one last kiss to her lips – it begins as chaste, but quickly turns into anything but, Kara’s tongue dipping into her mouth and flicking against the back of her teeth before she pulls away, trying not to smirk at the dazed look on Cat’s face. She unhooks Cat’s ankles at the small of her back because she’s certain that if she doesn’t step away from the heady scent of Cat’s perfume and from the woman herself, there’s no way in hell she’s going to be able to tear herself away if Cat kisses her again.

“Besides,” Cat continues as she pushes herself off the counter, Kara steadying her with a hand at her elbow. Cat manages to look cool and composed even as she’s pushing her rumpled skirt down her thighs, a flush on her cheeks and a look of dark desire in her eyes, and Kara is in awe, because she knows she must look as much of a mess as she feels on the inside – Cat was like an earthquake that had barely left her standing. “There’s no way I’m letting you get into my pants without taking me out for dinner first.”

“You… want to go on a date? With me?”

“Yes, Kara,” Cat placates her, though she does roll her eyes – Kara supposes it is a little silly to be doubtful of Cat’s want for her when not five seconds ago she’d had her tongue in Cat’s mouth. “I want to go on a date with you. Call my assistant – she’ll know when I’m free.”

Cat’s eyes sparkle with mischief, and Kara grins as she presses one last kiss to Cat’s cheek before she walks her to the front door. It’s only when it’s shut behind her that everything really sinks in – Cat had admitted to having feelings for her, Cat had _kissed_ her, and now she, completely inexperienced when it came to dating aside from a few flings during her college years, had to plan them the perfect date.

Shit.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cat and Kara have their first date, and it ends much, much better than either one of them could have hoped for.

“Don’t forget,” Kara murmurs as she walks into Cat’s office late the following Friday afternoon, tablet clutched tightly between her shaking hands, “that you h-have that dinner tonight.” Cat glances up from her laptop at that, expression softening when she sees the nervousness shining clearly in Kara’s eyes.

“I know, Kiera,” she says gently. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Kara practically beams, and Cat rolls her eyes, Kara choosing that moment to take her leave. Nothing’s really changed in the past week – Cat had checked in with her, late on Monday after everyone else had gone home, on whether she was still okay with everything that had happened between them the other night.

Kara’s response had been an enthusiastic _yes_ , and Cat had smiled and squeezed her shoulder gently with a whispered reminder in her ear that nothing could ever happen between them whilst they were in the office, lest people talk – neither one of them are ready for _that_ particular scandal to hit the headlines, especially so early on in their… could she even call it a relationship, yet?

Well, whatever it was, it had been torture seeing Cat every day, knowing what her skin felt like beneath those tight skirts she was so fond of wearing (the ones that rode up her thighs when they were in meetings and left Kara stuttering and delirious for long moments whilst so much bare flesh was on display), knowing how her lips tasted and what her moans sounded like, gasped into her ear.

Kara did a lot of daydreaming.

Like, a _lot_.

It was kind of embarrassing, really. Especially when Cat would catch her eye (usually when she was staring, but Cat was really, _really_ hot and really, who could blame her?) and smirk like she knew _exactly_ what Kara was thinking and Kara would flush and look away with the sound of Cat’s quietly amused laughter ringing in her ears.

But tonight they’d finally get to spend some time alone together, and she could hardly wait, even though she’s been a ball of nervous energy for the entire week. It’s been getting steadily worse as the days had gone by, and whilst she’s tried to hide it from Cat she hasn’t done such a good job around her sister or her friends, and she knows that they’re all waiting for this night almost as much as Kara is, because she’ll finally stop acting like such a fidgety idiot.

She can’t _help_ being terrified, though. It’s been a while since she’d been a date, and even longer since she’d been on a date with a woman, let alone a woman like _Cat Grant_. The only thing keeping her from having a complete meltdown is that she _knows_ Cat – she knows what she likes, and what she hates, and maybe she can actually pull this thing off.

“Will you sit _still_?” Lucy hisses at her later that evening, after she’s wrestled Kara down in-front of a mirror, insisting on sorting her make-up for the night. Alex is sprawled across her bed behind them, munching on a bag of chips (she’d wanted to ‘see the carnage of my sister getting ready for a date with Cat Grant’ as she’d put it, and Kara had threatened to burn her _or_ throw her out of the window if she didn’t behave herself).

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” Alex snorts as Kara sits on her hands in an effort to stop twirling them in her lap. She grimaces when Lucy produces some kind of sparkly eyeshadow from the bag she’d bought with her, rearing away when she moves the brush towards her face.

“What _is_ that?”

“It’ll make your eyes pop,” Lucy promises, but Kara shakes her head, jerking away as Lucy comes at her again. “Come on, Kara, don’t you wanna look perfect for Cat?”

“No, I want to look like _myself_ for Cat.”

“Christ, you really do have it bad,” Lucy mutters, and Kara glares. “Relax! I was just kidding. Are you ever going to thank me, by the way?”

“For what? You didn’t do anything to get us together.”

“Um, are we forgetting about the teddy bear Valentine incident that got this whole show on the road?”

“That was Carter’s idea,” Kara reminds her, sweetly, Alex watching the pair of them in amusement. “ _You_ claimed no responsibility for it.”

“That was before I knew it was going to work and I thought both you and Cat were going to team up to dangle me off the edge of the CatCo building.”

“Ooh, that’d be an interesting punishment, what do you think, Alex?”

“I’d have to advise against it,” she replies around a mouthful of chips. “Just in-case you dropped her. I wouldn’t want to have to deal with telling her father why Supergirl flung his daughter off a multi-storey building.”

“Hm, that’s true.” Lucy makes a face, and Kara grins. “You’d better not be getting crumbs in my bed.”

“Why? With the amount of food you eat in here it’ll only be adding to the pile… wait a minute.” Alex pauses, looking suspiciously at the sheets that surround her. “You’ve cleaned these. Oh my god, Kara, are you expecting to get lucky tonight? On the _first_ date?”

“Oh, look at the way she’s _blushing_ , Alex,” Lucy joins in, delighted. “That is priceless. This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I hate the both of you.”

“You love us really,” Lucy replies in a singsong voice. “Now, close your eyes, you need eyeliner. I’ll use the waterproof one so it doesn’t come off when you’re getting all hot and heavy later.” Kara groans, Lucy’s Cheshire-cat grin the last thing she sees before she closes her eyes. “I wonder what Cat’s like in bed,” she muses, then, and both Kara and Alex nearly choke. “Like, do you think she’d be - ”

“We are so not talking about this!” Kara exclaims, in no way wanting to hear the end of that sentence. “The topic of Cat Grant and sex is officially outlawed from any conversation you and I have in the future, _ever_.”

“So you’re not even going to tell me what it’s like?” Kara doesn’t need to have her eyes open to know that Lucy’s pouting, Alex snickering behind her. “That’s so cruel.”

“I’d never hear the end of it,” Kara mutters darkly. “So no. Because if Cat finds out I told you anything she’ll probably never sleep with me again and, sorry Luce, but that is not a world I want to live in.”

“You’re no fun.” Kara just hums, and Lucy is (thankfully) quiet as she applies the finishing touches to Kara’s make-up before she’s urging her out of the chair and spinning her around to survey the three dresses she’d picked out for the night.

She chooses the black one with the slit that goes up to mid-thigh and shows off the sharp angles of her collarbones and just a hint of cleavage, because she knows it shows _just_ enough skin to drive Cat wild. It hugs her in all the right places, and Lucy whistles appreciatively as Kara slides into the matching black heels that Alex shoves her way.

“Damn, girl. If Cat ever leaves you hanging, call me.”

“You have James.”

“James doesn’t look as good as you in a dress, though.” Kara rolls her eyes before she takes Lucy’s hand and steers her towards the front door, because as much as she loves the girl, there’s only so much teasing she can take, and with the nerves already rattling in her stomach she just needs a few minutes alone to get herself under control. “You got this, Kara,” she says, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze just before she ducks into the hallway. “She’s already head over heels for you – don’t worry yourself too much.”

“Thank you,” she says, and she means it, doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to express her gratitude for how much Lucy has come to mean to her. “For all your help tonight.”

“Anytime, you know that. I expect a phonecall in the morning for you to tell me how it went, in _explicit_ detail.”

“Get the hell out of here.” Lucy grins and blows her a kiss before dancing down the hall, Kara rolling her eyes at her retreating back, and Alex slips through the gap. “Have you been entertained enough for one night?”

“Oh yeah, it definitely beats being at my place and watching Jeopardy.” Kara shakes her head, but Alex’s smile is infections. “I’ll make sure the DEO don’t need you tonight.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it, just have fun, okay? Don’t let your nerves get the best of you. And don’t let that brain,” she taps her index finger against Kara’s temple. “Talk you out of anything, either. Remember what I said – you deserve to be happy.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“But also, don’t let her take advantage of you tonight, you know? You don’t have to do anything that you don’t - ”

“Ooookay,” she interrupts, giving Alex a tiny push towards the end of the hallway outside her apartment. “I think that is your cue to leave.”

“Don’t forgot to use protection!” Alex yells just before Kara slams the door in her face, and she groans as she hears her sister’s laughter echoing down the hall. Kara shakes her head, listening to her go, before she takes several deep breaths and tries to calm her racing heartbeat and sweaty palms.

She has no reason to be nervous about this. Logically she knows that, but she’s still terrified. She’s terrified of doing or saying the wrong thing, of sending Cat skittering away with no chance of getting her back.

When the doorbell rings a few minutes later it startles her so much that she hangs in the air for one long second before she tells herself to stop being ridiculous, and she grabs her bag from the top of the kitchen table (the same table where she’d had her hands up Cat’s skirt, and she’s never been able to look at it quite the same since), and heads down the stairs and onto the street outside where one of Cat’s drivers is waiting for her.

He opens the door and she slides inside and they head for the Grant’s apartment complex. Kara fiddles nervously with her hands as she watches the city flash by outside of the tinted windows, and has to remind herself to keep breathing as they pull up at the curb where she slips out of the car and into the building.

Her hand trembles as she knocks on Cat’s door, and she remembers the very first time she’d done this. It feels so long ago, even though it had only been a handful of weeks, but so much has changed since that night and Kara can barely believe it.

Cat opens the door wearing a smile and a sinfully tight light blue dress that makes Kara’s jaw drop and mouth go dry, and Cat eyes her appreciatively right back and there’s a part of Kara that wants to take hold of Cat’s arm and tug her towards her bedroom and tell the driver to go home.

“You look… breathtaking.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself, Supergirl,” Cat replies airily, though her eyes soften at the compliment as she offers Kara her arm. “Shall we?”

Kara had chosen one of Cat’s favourite restaurants, a sushi place that also served less fishy foods that Kara could enjoy, and to stop her fidgeting in the car ride downtown Cat curls a hand around Kara’s and tangles their fingers together as she lets them rest on her thigh.

“What time do you have to be home for Carter?” Kara asks, curiously, because she’d seen no hint of him at Cat’s place and considering how hard he’d been campaigning for them to get together she’s a little surprised that he’d chosen to stay out of sight.

“Carter,” Cat replies, with a smile so warm that it melts Kara’s heart, “is at a sleepover with some of the boys from his new school.”

“Really?” Kara knows that he’d been faring much better there than he had at any of his previous schools, but she’d had no idea _how_ much better. “That’s amazing, Cat.”

“It is,” she all but gushes, that familiar light in her eyes as she talks about her son. “It’s his first ever one – I’m actually glad it worked out this way, because otherwise I’d just be sat at home worrying about him. I have you to thank for this, Kara.” She turns to face her, gratitude written across her expression. “He’s happier than I’ve ever seen him, and it’s all down to you. _You_ , Kara – you’ve always been a superhero to me.”

“Because I am one.” She flushes slightly at both the praise and the look on Cat’s face, awe and appreciation, and Cat shakes her head.

“No, that’s not what I mean.” She’s running her thumb over the back of Kara’s hand, and it sends little shockwaves all the way down to her toes – she’s never been so affected by another person before, and it makes her head spin. “You’re Supergirl, yes, but Kara Danvers has always been _my_ Supergirl.”

“And you’ve always been mine,” Kara admits quietly, because she’d admired Cat for so long – part of the reason she’d wanted this job had been to learn from the most powerful woman in National City, and she’d learned so much more than she ever would have expected.

She’s learned how to be a good assistant, how to put someone else’s needs before her own, how to be a good journalist, and, she thinks most importantly, she’s learned what it feels like to be in love.

“Even when I was sending you out every two hours for coffee?” She asks with a raised eyebrow, and Kara shrugs.

“Well, okay, maybe not _all_ the time.” Cat smiles. “But… you’ve taught me a lot, Cat.”

“Not nearly as much as you’ve taught me, I fear,” Cat murmurs quietly in reply, and Kara itches to know what those things might be. “Ah, we’re here,” she says before Kara gets the chance to ask, the car pulling to a stop and the door beside them opening. “Thank you, Stefan. We’ll give you a call when we’re ready to be picked up?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Kara is quick to follow Cat out of the door and hauls open the door of the restaurant for her, earning a pleased smile from the other woman as she steps inside. One of the many perks of being Cat Grant’s assistant is that she can get a table anywhere in the city at a moment’s notice, and Kara is glad of that fact as she glances around and sees the place bustling, barely a spare table in sight.

They’re led to a darkened booth towards the back of the restaurant, and Kara jumps a little when she feels Cat’s hand settle over hers as they both look over the menu, even though Kara’s certain they both know exactly what they’re having.

“What?” Cat asks when she notices Kara glance down at their hands in surprise, and she shuffles a little in her seat under the curious look Cat’s aiming her way.

“I guess… I guess I just didn’t think you’d be so… handsy. With me. In public.”

“I’m not ashamed of you, Kara,” Cat scoffs with a roll of her eyes, tightening her grip on Kara’s hand as if to prove a point, drumming her fingertips against the back of her wrist. “So get that thought out of your head right now.”

“I-I didn’t think you were,” she tries to defend, even though there’s a little truth in that statement, because she’s _Cat Grant_ and the only other dinners they’ve ever been on is as boss and assistant, and Kara thinks it’s going to take her some time to get herself out of that headspace when they’re out in public. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” Cat murmurs, watching her carefully. “But look around us, Kara – you’re the most beautiful woman in this room, and you’re here with me. If you think I’m not going to show you off a little, you’re sorely mistaken.” Kara flushes and glances down at the table, knowing that Cat’s grinning, enjoying the effect she has on her. “What do you want to drink?”

“Whatever wine you want is good with me.”

“I’m guessing you can’t get drunk?”

“Nope.” She shakes her head. “Alcohol doesn’t do anything for me.”

“So you’ve never experienced a hangover? God, you’re lucky.” Cat gives a delicate shudder, and Kara thinks she doesn’t need to have felt it herself to know how it feels – she can tell that from the miserable expression on Cat’s face the morning after a particularly trying day.

“Well… I have, once. It’s possible for me to lose my powers,” she explains quietly when she notices Cat’s inquisitive gaze. “It’s only happened twice. You might remember the first time, with the broken arm.” Cat hums. “Well, before they came back fully the second time, my sister got me drunk. It was awful.” She wrinkles her nose – it hadn’t lasted long, but it had sucked.

“I think I’d like to see you drunk,” Cat murmurs thoughtfully, chin propped on her free hand, elbow resting on the table. “I imagine it’d be quite the experience.”

“Mostly I sing a lot and say whatever thought first comes into my head,” Kara muses, remembering the fond look on Alex’s face has she had recapped the night the following morning. “So around you I imagine that could get pretty embarrassing.”

“Oh?” Cat arches an eyebrow, and Kara presses her lips tightly together, because she should _not_ have said that. “And why’s that?” She’s teasing, because Kara’s sure she knows _exactly_ why that is – she’s saved from having to explain by the arrival of their waitress.

Cat orders her favourite brand of wine and the sushi, and Kara gets a steak, and when Cat just turns expectantly towards her as their waitress is leaving she realises that she’s not going to get away with it _that_ easily.

“Because I think a lot of inappropriate things when I’m around you.”

“Like what?” Cat asks, a little breathlessly, and Kara worries at her bottom lip because articulating… that kind of thing really isn’t her forte.

“Um,” she nervously toys with her glasses with her free hand, buying herself some time. “For example, right now I’m wondering what type of underwear you’re wearing under that dress.”

“If you play your cards right you might find that out later,” Cat promises, and Kara’s mouth goes dry. “What else?”

“S-sometimes, on the days where you wear a tight skirt or one that’s shorter than usual or rides up it… it makes it hard to think.” Cat seems to be waiting for more, and Kara can barely believe that this is an actual thing that she’s doing. “Be-because I wonder what it would feel like to… to run my hands up the inside of your thighs like I did the other night.”

Kara watches with rapt attention the way that Cat swallows, heavily, her breathing more than a little laboured, the fingers of the hand at Kara’s wrist digging lightly into her skin.

“Remind me again,” Cat murmurs, voice low and husky, “why we didn’t just skip dinner?”

“Because _you_ told me that I wasn’t getting in your pants before taking you to dinner first.”

“Sometimes you shouldn’t listen to what I say, Kara.”

“Can’t help it,” she shrugs, leaning back slightly as their waitress arrives with Cat’s wine, not realising how close they’d gravitated towards one another over the top of the table whilst they’d been speaking. “It’s in my nature to let you boss me around.”

Cat’s heartrate spikes and her eyebrow twitches like she’s _very_ interested in finding out _just_ how much control Kara is willing to give up to her, and the dark look in Cat’s eyes makes her bite at her bottom lip, crossing her legs over one another in an attempt to quench the ache that settles between her thighs at the thought.

 _That_ is a topic of conversation they will be re-visiting later, she’s sure.

“How did you lose your powers?” Cat asks, steering the conversation back to safer topics as she takes a sip from the glass of wine the waitress had poured for her, reclining back in her chair though never shifting her hand from on-top of Kara’s – it’s almost as if she’s continuously reassuring herself that Kara’s real.

“If I use them too much I can burn myself out and it takes a while for me to get them back.” Cat’s watching her with interest, and Kara shifts anxiously beneath her curious gaze. “Can we… can we maybe not talk about that stuff tonight?” She asks haltingly. “I know there’s a lot of stuff you don’t know about me and I know there’s a lot you do want to know but I… I don’t want this to feel like another interview.”

She looks down at her lap as she says that, voice quiet and hesitant, because she doesn’t want to have Cat closing herself off.

“Look at me,” Cat demands softly, squeezing her hand as Kara tilts her head up. “I just want to know more about you, Kara, I’m sorry if you feel like you’re being put on the spot, that isn’t my intention.” Cat looks contrite, and the way she taps her fingers nervously against the stem of her glass makes Kara wonder if maybe she isn’t the only one worrying about saying the wrong thing tonight. “It’s just hard for me to turn the journalist in me off.”

“No, it’s okay.” She offers Cat a tentative smile. “I know you’re going to have a lot of questions. But I… I just want to be Kara tonight.”

“Okay,” Cat murmurs, voice like velvet, soft and comforting. “What’s your favourite movie?” Kara eyes her warily, and Cat rolls her eyes. “I know it was a long time ago, but I did mean it when I said that I wanted to change the fact that I didn’t know a lot about you, so, go. Favourite movie.”

Their night continues in much the same way, questioning the other about their favourite things or about their past. She finds out much more about Cat than she ever thought she would.

She learns that she’s a nerd – her favourite genre is sci-fi, and she loves video games, will often buy them for Carter only for her to play them herself when he’s gone to bed. She loves to cook, though because of the demands of CatCo she doesn’t have as much time for it as she would otherwise like.

She hates heights, and she has an irrational fear of squirrels which Kara does not understand, and which Cat can’t even properly explain to her.

She gets a fascinating insight into Cat’s career, greater than the biographies Kara has read online. Cat gets this light in her eyes when she talks about it, and Kara hears little snippets from the most significant moments of Cat’s rise to the top.

Her heart breaks when she hears about her first story, about the murder that maybe she would have been able to prevent, and the way that Cat’s lips downturn at the corners as she speaks about it has Kara reaching for her with her other hand, cradling one of Cat’s between her own.

She finds out that Cat had her first kiss when she was twelve, and it was messy and uncoordinated and put her off it for nearly another two years. She hadn’t been popular in school, that Kara already knew, but she tells her some of the horrific things that the other kids had done to her and Kara feels fury lick through her veins.

And in return, she tells Cat a little bit about herself. Of the little she can remember of growing up on Krypton, of what it had been like to come to a new planet and adapt to the strange ways of the humans. She tells a few little anecdotes of some of the stupid or funny things she’d done before she knew better in the hopes of wiping the tiny frown of sympathy she sees between Cat’s brows as Kara speaks of all that she’s lost.

The evening passes quickly, the restaurant emptying around them as they continue to talk about anything and everything. Cat’s on her second cup of coffee (‘I want to be sober for whatever comes after this’ she’d murmured to Kara when she’d ordered it, and Kara had swallowed, hard, at the thought of just _what_ might come next), and Kara calls Stefan to come and pick them up as she notices their waitress eyeing them a little sullenly.

“No, let me,” Cat protests when Kara reaches for the cheque that had been deposited on their table some time ago but that neither one of them had moved towards.

“I want to.”

“I don’t pay you enough for you to be able to afford this, Kara,” Cat murmurs, and Kara shrugs, because she can just be a little more careful with how much she spends until she next gets paid. “Please? This was my idea, after all.”

It’s the please that does her in, because Cat Grant rarely, if ever, asks for anything, and Kara is too busy staring at her in shock to notice Cat reaching for her purse and sliding a stack of notes into the little black book.

“I’m paying next time,” she insists as the waitress swoops in to take it away, and Cat smiles indulgently at her but doesn’t agree to it.

“You can repay me later,” she murmurs, instead, eyes flashing with something dark and dangerous that has Kara’s heart beating a little faster, and she scrambles to her feet when she gets a message from Stefan telling her that he’s outside. Cat chuckles, amused at her eagerness, but she slides her arm into Kara’s as they head towards the door.

“Where to, Ma’am?” Stefan asks as he pulls open the car door, and Cat purses her lips in thought as she slides inside, practically yanking Kara down beside her.

“Where’s closer?” She asks, voice low in Kara’s ear. “Your place or mine? Assuming that’s something you want,” Cat’s voice turns uncertain. “Am I oversteppin - ”

“God, you are _so_ not overstepping and that is something I want very, very, _very_ much,” she rushes out in one long breath, and she can practically _feel_ Cat’s smirk against her skin. “My place is closer.”

“You heard the girl, Stefan,” Cat calls with a wave of her hand. “To the Danvers’ residence.” He nods and shuts the door behind him, the car purring to life a moment later.

“You really want to go to my apartment?” Kara asks, a little shocked that Cat’s agreed to this. “I thought you said my neighbourhood was dangerous?”

“Oh, I think it is.” Cat shifts in her seat, and suddenly there’s a knee on either side of Kara’s hips and Cat is sitting in her lap and she can barely breathe. “But I’ve been regretting putting a stop to what we almost started last weekend ever since it happened and you look _divine_ in that dress and the faster I can get you out of it the better.”

Kara groans, in firm agreement, and settles her hands on Cat’s hips, keeping her steady as she ducks down to press their lips together. It’s frenzied and messy and hot and _perfect_ , and Kara’s pulse pounds in her ears as Cat’s tongue slips into her mouth and her fingers run through her hair.

God, she’s been dreaming about this for days but none of it compares to the reality, to having the solid, warm weight of Cat settled on-top of her, of having blunt nails dragging across her scalp and the feeling of Cat’s skin beneath her fingertips.

She’s got one hand on her thigh, pushing her dress higher and higher with each stroke of Cat’s tongue against her own, and her other is at Cat’s hip but it drifts higher until Cat’s arching into her touch and she’s cupping one of her breasts, squeezing in time with Cat’s gentle moans.

By the time they reach Kara’s apartment her hair is a mess, her glasses long gone (she’s pretty sure they’re on the floor somewhere, but she can’t find the desire to look for them when the car pulls to a stop, not when Cat’s looking at her with a heaving chest and flushed cheeks and red lips, her pupils blown wide), and the skirt of Cat’s dress is practically bunched up to her waist.

When Kara had gotten a glimpse of the black lace she’s wearing beneath it she’d nearly come on the spot, because Cat Grant in lingerie?

Hottest thing she’s ever seen.

At least until she gets to see Cat Grant coming undone beneath her mouth and her hands.

“Thank you, Stefan,” Cat calls as she drags Kara out of the car and yanks her upstairs, and whilst Kara is fumbling with the lock on her door Cat’s hands are ghosting up the back of her thighs and squeezing her ass and _god_ , she’s pretty sure she’s not going to survive this night, because she already feels like she’s ready to explode and Cat’s barely even touched her yet.

When she hears the sound of a door clicking open behind them she freezes – she turns her head just in time to see her elderly neighbour giving them a scandalised look, and Kara nearly drops the keys altogether.

“Give them here,” Cat mutters, completely ignoring the fact that they’re being gaped at as she snatches them out of Kara’s hands, sliding the key into the lock and getting the door open within a second. “Honestly, Kara - ”

She’s cut off by Kara’s mouth as she tangles a hand in her hair and kisses the rest of her sentence away, pushing Cat through the now-open door and then pressing her against the back of it once it’s closed.

Cat groans against her mouth as Kara slips a thigh between her parted legs, and Kara’s thankful that she’d pushed Cat’s skirt up so high before because she can feel her sex through her underwear, hot and wet against her thigh as she grinds against Kara, slowly and deliberately in a way that leaves her shuddering, and Kara wanting.

Warm fingers slide from Kara’s hair and to the back of her neck, toying with the zipper of her dress before she drags it down, just enough for the top of it to sag and expose Kara’s breasts. Cat tears her mouth away from Kara’s, eyes dipping down to take in the sight of the freshly exposed skin, and her tongue wets her bottom lip as her fingers trail over Kara’s collarbones and down, down, down until she’s brushing against the lace cup of her bra.

Kara’s breath stutters as Cat tugs it roughly down, and Kara’s hands reach behind her back to flick open the clasp, letting the garment fall to the floor somewhere behind her. Cat is eyeing her appreciatively, and it’s torture, Cat’s hand hovering close enough for her to feel the heat of it, but not actually _touching_ her, and Kara would be embarrassed by the little whimper that escapes her mouth if it didn’t make Cat’s eyes darken, her fingers splaying across Kara’s breast as she tugs her into another kiss, smothering the sound of her moan with her mouth.

Cat’s fingers tease at one nipple and then the other, Kara trembling beneath her touch, and she rocks her thigh deliberately against Cat’s centre, is rewarded with a low hiss and a rougher twist of Cat’s fingers, and so she does it again and again until Cat’s hooking a knee over Kara’s hip and resting her heel at the small of her back and dragging her closer, closer.

Cat’s head falls back against the door behind her, exposing her throat to Kara’s teeth and tongue. She starts just below Cat’s jaw and leaves a trail of open-mouthed kisses downwards, still rocking her thigh – it’s hard enough to have Cat sliding up the door a little, but she’s definitely not complaining judging from the way she’s gripping at Kara’s shoulders, nails digging in hard enough to split the skin if she were human.

“God, Kara,” she breathes when Kara’s tongue swipes a lazy trail from the base of her neck up to her pulse point, teeth nipping gently (not hard enough to leave a mark – she’s pretty sure Cat will kill if she does that). Cat’s wet enough for Kara to feel it, even through her underwear, painting her thigh with every arch of her hips, and god, she can’t wait to feel that heat beneath her fingertips, against her _mouth_ , and lifts her head and kisses Cat senseless at the thought, until she’s gasping against her lips.

She slips a hand down to Cat’s thigh, holding her in place as she grinds against her more deliberately, and she watches Cat’s eyes roll back before they flutter closed, and Kara thinks that she’s never going to see another sight quite as glorious as this, as Cat throws her head back and breathes out her name, shuddering against her as her calf flexes behind Kara’s back to keep her close.

Kara’s nose skims down the side of Cat’s neck as she waits for her breathing to level out, for her heart, beating triple time in her chest, to slow, a little in awe (and maybe a little bit proud) that she can make Cat come just from this.

She’s hoping she can repeat the experience a dozen times over before the night is through.

She knows the exact moment that Cat recovers, because her fingertips release their hold on Kara’s shoulders and she threads her hands through blonde hair and tugs Kara’s head back roughly from the side of her neck, and her eyes are dark and wide and the look in them makes Kara’s knees tremble.

“Bed, _now_.” Kara shivers at the commanding tone of Cat’s voice, releases her hold on her thigh and takes her hand, instead, pulling Cat at her side as she leads them to her room. Cat doesn’t even glance around them as Kara tugs her through the door, has eyes only for Kara as she pauses at the end of her bed. “Take that off,” she murmurs, waving at the dark material bunched around her waist, and Kara tugs the zipper down the rest of the way, mouth going dry as she watches Cat do the same – she gets distracted for one long moment as Cat’s dress slides over her hips, leaving her in nothing but matching black underwear and god, that’s not an image Kara’s forgetting anytime soon.

She wonders if Cat will pose for her to paint, so that she can immortalise her in all her glory forevermore, but that is a request for another night, because right now Cat is crooking a finger at her to come closer and Kara obeys without question, arms winding around Cat’s waist to pull her close, sighing against her lips at how perfect it feels to be pressed together, skin against skin.

Kara takes the liberty of lifting them into the air and onto to bed, Cat letting out a tiny squeak as her feet leave the ground and Kara grins into their kiss. Cat definitely isn’t complaining though when Kara lowers them onto her mattress, Cat sprawled out on-top of her, and she thinks that, like just about everything else that has happening tonight, this is a sight she wouldn’t mind seeing more often.

Cat shifts so that she’s straddling Kara’s hips, and reaches behind her to undo her bra, and Kara nearly passes out when she slides the straps down her shoulders and lets it fall to the floor. She sits up slowly, giving Cat plenty of time to stop her, but when Cat’s only response is a heated stare Kara uses it as encouragement, rests her hands on the small of Cat’s back as she ducks her head and takes a nipple into her mouth.

Cat breathes out a soft moan, hands once again in Kara’s hair (she wonders if this is going to be a regular occurrence, and definitely doesn’t mind if it is because it feels kind of amazing, especially when she’s clenching her fingers tightly, hard enough for Kara to feel the pull even with her senses dulled).

She teases it into a stiff peak with teeth and tongue, paying attention to what Cat likes and cataloguing it for later. She quickly learns that when Cat arches her hips into her or pulls at her hair that she’s doing something very, very right, and she does it over and over again until Cat is breathless above her, and it’s only then that she pulls away, pressing a line of kisses across Cat’s sternum, grazing her other nipple lightly with her teeth.

“ _Jesus_ , Kara,” Cat breathes, and her name coming from Cat’s lips like this is one of the greatest things she’s ever heard. When Cat tugs her away she catches Kara’s bottom lip between her teeth before she kisses her deeply, one hand on either side of Kara’s jaw.

Kara’s hands begin to wander, drifting up Cat’s sides until she’s cupping her breasts, unable to tear her attention away from them as Cat arches against her, groaning into her mouth. When she lets the fingers of one hand trail lower, over the quivering muscles of Cat’s stomach, Cat sucks in a quiet breath and spreads her legs wider across Kara’s lap.

It’s not an easy angle for her to slip her hand beneath Cat’s underwear but she manages it, unable to stop a moan as she feels how wet Cat is for her, fingers skating across her clit and down, and her breathing turns laboured as she presses first one, then two fingers inside of Cat and feels her shudder against her.

Cat’s head falls onto her shoulder and Kara allows herself a moment to soak this in: the quick pants of Cat’s breath close to her ear, the rapid beat of her heart in her chest, and the feeling of Cat around her fingers, hot and slick and amazing, and she thinks, as she curls her fingers and starts to work them in and out of her, palm of her hand grinding against her clit, that she could so easily become addicted to the way that this makes her feel.

She feels drunk, drunk on Cat as strong, sure hands curl around her shoulders once again, Cat raising her head to press her forehead against Kara’s as her hips rock against her hand, and Kara glances down, at her hand working inside of Cat’s underwear and feels a pulse of desire, low in her stomach and pooling between her thighs. And then she glances up and meets Cat’s gaze, and doesn’t think she’s ever felt something quite as intense as this, doesn’t think she’s ever felt so wanted, has never felt as deliriously happy as she is feeling Cat all around her.

“Harder, Kara,” Cat demands in a breathless whisper, and Kara is only too eager to obey because it makes Cat’s eyes flutter closed and her lips part in a silent moan, clenching around Kara’s fingers in a desperate bid to draw her in deeper.

God, she could do this for hours, she thinks as she tips Cat over the edge, thighs trembling on either side of Kara’s hips and walls pulsing around her as she slows the thrust of her fingers, admiring the way Cat’s chest heaves as she tries to catch her breath. She drags her hand away once Cat’s stopped shaking, glistening fingers gliding over Cat’s stomach before she shrugs and slips them into her mouth, because Cat looks kind of spent and Kara _definitely_ needs to know what she tastes like and commit it to memory.

Cat’s eyes flicker open as Kara’s fingers are sliding from between her lips, and she swears she hears Cat let out what can only be described as a _growl_ before the hands at her shoulders and shoving her backwards, and Kara’s so surprised that she lets herself fall, head landing on her pillows as her back hits the mattress, Cat pinning her hands on either side of her head.

Cat’s tongue dips into mouth, tasting herself on Kara’s lips before her mouth is moving down the side of Kara’s neck, pressing a trail of biting kisses that leave her completely breathless, ache building between her thighs as Cat settles herself at Kara’s chest.

And if Kara thought that Cat was talented with her fingers then god, it’s nothing compared to what her mouth can do. She arches her back at the first swipe of Cat’s tongue against one of her nipples, Cat flattening her tongue before dragging it in tight circles, and Kara’s hips shift as she imagines Cat repeating that exact same motion on her clit and oh, god, she might actually combust before Cat can really, truly touch her because she already feels on the edge, skin sparking everywhere Cat is touching, every nerve ending in her body on high alert.

As if she can read her desperation, Cat slides a hand between their bodies as she presses a gentle bite to the side of one of Kara’s breasts, shoving her underwear down her legs a little impatiently, and Kara is only too happy to help shake them off the rest of the way until they fly off her ankle and onto the floor.

Cat shifts so that she’s kneeling between Kara’s legs, lifts her head to watch her reaction through half-lidded eyes as she trails a teasing hand up the inside of Kara’s thigh, nails dragging over the quivering muscle until she reaches the juncture at her hip and then back down again.

“Cat,” Kara pleads, her voice a little strangled, because this is _torture_ and she _needs_ Cat’s hands on her, needs the release almost as much as she needs air. “Cat, _please_.”

Cat makes a pleased noise in the back of her throat, and Kara makes a mental note that begging will get her places as Cat’s hand drifts higher yet again, parting her lips before sliding a single finger along the length of her sex and oh, god, Kara’s never felt anything like it.

Because yes, she’s had sex before, but it had never meant anything. Her first time had been fumbling and awkward, more a case of ‘get it over and done with’ than anything else, and the few times she’s done it since, it has always been casual, and it had never been anything like _this_.

No-one has ever looked at her like this, settled between her parted thighs and slipping a single digit inside of her, with the reverence of Cat Grant, chin resting on Kara’s ribs and head cocked to one side, and Kara knows she’s watching her every reaction, and usually she’d be self-conscious about it but oh, she can’t be, not when Cat’s looking at her like she’s a miracle.

Her eyes slide shut as Cat pulls away and then slides back into her with a second finger, and when she adds a third Kara gasps, back arching and incoherent noises spilling from her lips, hands clenching desperately at the sheets on either side of her as she slings a leg over Cat’s hip and uses it as leverage to meet every thrust of Cat’s fingers.

She’s moving slowly, frustratingly slowly, her tongue teasing at Kara’s other nipple and Kara nearly comes when Cat repeats the motions of her tongue with her thumb pressed against her clit, grinds desperately against Cat’s fingers and she’s nearly, nearly there – and then Cat’s thumb is gone, and her fingers and stilling though they remain inside of her, and Kara groans, eyes fluttering open to find Cat looking down at her with a wicked smirk on her face.

“Cat - ” She’s cut off by a breathless moan as Cat curls her fingers, and then slides her eyes closed once more as she feels Cat shift, lifting the leg around her waist so that it sits over her shoulder, instead, hair whispering over Kara’s stomach as she kisses a heated path downwards and oh, fuck, fuck, fuck Kara definitely isn’t ready for this, isn’t ready for the feeling of Cat’s mouth against her –

And oh, and it’s as amazing as she thought it would be, Cat trapping her clit between her lips and swirling her tongue in quick circles that send Kara spiralling over the edge, crying out Cat’s name as white spots explode behind her eyes, grinding against Cat’s mouth and clenching her hands in the sheets so hard that she hears them tear, but god, she doesn’t care because she’s never felt quite like this before, like she’s flying.

It’s long moments before she can open her eyes again, blood rushing in her ears as she glances down at Cat, wet fingers splayed across one thigh and her head resting against the other, looking up at Kara with fond eyes.

Kara thinks, as Cat lowers her head once again and drags her tongue in a slow trail from Kara’s clit and down, that it’s a damn good thing that she has super stamina, because she’s pretty sure, from the look in Cat’s eyes before she slips her own closed once again and surrenders to the sensations Cat’s mouth is drawing out of her, that Cat has little plans of stopping what she’s doing anytime soon.

And that is so, so, okay with her.

x-x-x

“Whatever that is,” Kara groans the next morning as she tugs a pillow over head in an effort to stop the incessant ringing emanating from Cat’s side of the bed, “please make it stop.”

Sunlight streams through the thin curtains that line the huge window in her bedroom, but Kara can’t even pause to admire the way it illuminates Cat in a soft, gorgeous glow because she is _exhausted_. She doesn’t even know how late Cat kept her up (and really, out of the two of them, Kara really hadn’t expected Cat to be the insatiable one, and she’s really glad she can’t seize up the way humans do because she’s pretty sure that, if she could, she wouldn’t be able to walk straight for a week), and she dreads to think, is just glad that is a weekend and she can stay in bed for as long as she wanted.

“Well, aren’t you a delight in the morning,” Cat murmurs, amused lilt to her voice as she presses a light kiss to the exposed skin of Kara’s shoulder – Kara just grumbles something unintelligible, and Cat chuckles as she shifts in the bed. “Oh, crap,” she mutters, then, and Kara is immediately alert, rolling over onto her back and arching a questioning eyebrow as she watches Cat lift her phone to her ear.

 _“Hey, Mom,”_ she hears Carter’s cheerful voice come through the other end. _“Are you still okay to come and pick me up?”_

“Um, yeah, sweetheart,” Cat never stumbles over her words, but she does today, and when she glances at the clock on Kara’s bedside table she closes her eyes and lets out a quiet sigh. “Is it okay if I’m a little later than we agreed?”

Kara prods Cat in the shoulder. “Do you want me to go and get him?” She asks when Cat turns to face her. “Superspeed means I can be ready in like two minutes.”

 _“Is that Kara?”_ She hears Carter ask. _“Oh my god, did you spend the night together? Gross.”_ She imagines the way he’d be scrunching up his nose in disgust and both she and Cat share a smile.

“May I remind you,” Cat murmurs into the phone as she leans back against Kara’s pillows, Kara drawing errant patterns across Cat’s stomach with her fingertips – there are a couple of bruises, imprints of Kara’s fingers on her hips, and she brushes over them apologetically. “That _you_ were the one who wanted us together in the first place?”

 _“Yeah, but not like_ that.” Kara lets out a low chuckle, biting her lip when Cat’s eyes rake across her figure as the sheet over her falls down.

“Kara’s going to come get you, she’ll be there soon, is that okay? Have you eaten?”

_“I had some cereal but I could eat again.”_

“We’ll go and get breakfast out somewhere?”

 _“Okay,”_ Carter replies brightly. _“See you soon.”_ He hangs up and Cat lets the phone drop back onto the bed as she draws Kara into a kiss, wrapping an arm around the back of her shoulders.

“Mm, much as I would very, very much like to keep doing this,” Kara murmurs against Cat’s lips, pulling back slightly. “If you keep kissing me like that I am never going to want to leave this bed, and I think we’d have a very unhappy thirteen year old on our hands if we did that.”

“Mm, okay.” Cat pecks at her lips one last time before shoving gently at her shoulder. “Go on. Impress me with your superspeed.” Kara grins and ducks away, whirling around her room too fast for Cat to follow and re-appearing a few moments later, fully dressed and dragging a brush through her hair. She has a stack of glasses on her desk, and she grabs a pair and shoves them on her nose, Cat watching her with a look of awe.

“You need to get ready, too,” Kara reminds her as she perches on the edge of her bed and tugs on a pair of boots, Cat still lounging against her headboard completely naked and looking like she belongs there – Kara’s definitely going to get her to pose for her sometime.

“I will, I will.” She rattles off the address of Carter’s friends place, not really within walking distance but she can jog there with very little effort (she’d fly, but she doesn’t really want the questions), and agrees to meet them at a diner halfway between there and her apartment. “Come here,” she murmurs before Kara can leave, tugging her closer and pressing one last kiss to her lips, hot enough to leave her craving more. “I’ll see you soon.”

Kara hums, leaving Cat with her keys and slipping out of the front door, closing it quietly behind her. She passes her neighbour on the stairs, flushes red and keeps her eyes on the floor until she’s long gone, because she knows she and Cat hadn’t been exactly quiet last night (though she hadn’t really cared about that too much, at the time).

She sings quietly to herself as she makes her way through the streets of National City, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her back and the lingering scent of Cat’s perfume on her skin.

“I’m here for Carter?” She says when a confused-looking woman opens the door of the apartment she knocks at a little while later, and Carter himself comes bounding down the hall not a second later, careening to a stop just before he collides with Kara’s legs. “Hey, kid. Had fun?”

“So much fun!” He’s practically beaming, and another boy appears a little way down the hall. “This is my friend Evan.”

“Hi, Evan.” He waves, and she smiles. “I hope he wasn’t too much trouble for you,” she directs towards the woman, presumably Evan’s mother judging from the near identical brown eyes.

“He was perfect,” the woman assures her. “If you don’t mind me asking, where’s Cat?”

“Oh, she um, got held up in a meeting,” Kara lies, and Carter shakes his head in mock disapproval when he catches her eye. “I’m her assistant, I can call her, if you want to make sure she’s okay with me taking him - ”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Evan’s mother interrupts with a wave of her hand. “Carter obviously knows you. You two have a good day.”

“Bye, Evan!” Carter calls, waving at his friend before thanking his mother politely for letting him stay in a way that would make Cat proud. Carter falls into step beside Kara as they walk towards the diner, chattering all about his night. “It went okay with my Mom last night, right?” Carter asks eventually, and Kara grins, having been wondering the entire time how long it would take him to bring it up.

“It went… _more_ than okay.”

“Uh, gross, I don’t need details,” he says immediately, and sure enough, his nose is scrunched up and he looks adorable. She ruffles his hair playfully and he makes a face.

“I, uh, I want to thank you, actually.” He looks up at her curiously, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. “I don’t think anything would have ever happened if not for you,” she points out, because the pair of them are both far too stubborn. “I don’t know what you said to your Mom the night she came marching over to my place, but… whatever it was, it worked. So thank you. For being determined enough to not take any notice of either one of us when we said there was nothing between us.”

“I just wanted you guys to be happy,” he brushes off her gratitude with a light shrug. “You deserve it.” She squeezes his shoulder gently and swiftly changes the subject, getting him to update her on all his new friends at school.

When they reach the diner Cat is already sat at a booth within, a cup of coffee held between her hands. She’s wearing the same dress from last night but she’s got one of Kara’s sweatshirts zipped over the top of it, and it dwarfs her completely but she looks absolutely adorable, the smile that lights up her face as she notices the two of them walking through the front door bright enough to rival the sun.

She’s the most beautiful thing that Kara’s ever seen.

She slides into the booth beside her and wraps an arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss against her cheek and Carter watches them and rolls his eyes as he takes a sip of the hot chocolate that Cat had ordered for him, and they both laugh when there’s a cream moustache on his top lip when he lowers his mug.

Kara doesn’t know what her future will hold – it’s always been murky at best – but she does know, as she listens to the quiet sound of Cat’s laughter and watches Carter scrub hastily at his mouth with the back of his hand, that she doesn’t want to face another say without either of these two by her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so, so much fun writing this, and I hope you've all enjoyed the ending. The love for this fic has honestly blown me away, so thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and kudos, they mean the world to me. 
> 
> Hopefully you'll be happy to hear that I am already working on my next Supercat fic :) It's a little different to anything I've ever done before, and it's looking like it'll be quite a bit longer than this fic, so it might be a while before it's posted. But it is coming! And I have a oneshot that will be posted on Sunday. 
> 
> I'm on tumblr (ofendlesswonder) if you wanna find me on there.
> 
> Until next time, and thank you all again!


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